Jade Potter and the philosopher's stone
by Insanity-is-Freedom
Summary: Jade Potter, is a completely normal girl, whose brother Christopher Potter, is the Boy-Who-Lived. When she goes to Hogwarts for her first year, Jade is determined to become someone people cannot ignore anymore. FemHarry, Eventual Harry/Draco, well Jade/Draco so not a slash.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of Harry Potter's characters.**

**Note: In this story, Harry is a girl called Jade. She has a brother called Christopher who is the Boy-Who-Lived. Jade will be a bit different from harry character-wise since she did not receive the same education (her parents are alive) and obviously has turned out to be a bit different as a result.**

**I am planning to have a Draco/Jade pairing at some point in the story but it will be later, if I ever get to that point.**

**Please feel free to review and make suggestions. I am also open to criticism, as long as it's polite.**

* * *

Jade Lily Potter was standing in King's Cross station, and more precisely on platform 9 and ¾. She and her twin brother Christopher James Potter were on their way to Hogwarts. It was to be their first year at the school of witchcraft and wizardry. She was standing in the middle of the crowd, watching with a blatant lack of interest as her brother was being embraced by their parents. She wasn't the only one watching them. Many passers-by were giving excited glances to Christopher. Well, they were looking at his forehead. What caught their attention was the scar, cleanly cut in the pale skin, in the shape of a lightning bolt. It was more visible than it usually was and Jade suspected Christopher had pushed his dark brown hair away to reveal the scar. So people she had never seen before and would probably never see again, gazed at her brother's scar reverently; the scar that marked him as the one and only Boy-Who-Lived, the first (and probably last) person to have survived the killing curse. But what made Christopher even more famous was the fact that he had modelled for _Witch Weekly_. No I'm just joking. In fact, what made him famous was that he had somehow reflected the killing curse on the caster, who just happened to be Voldermort, oops, You-Know-Who (Jade personally thought it was absolutely ridiculous to change your name to something creepy if nobody was going to use it anyway), a dark wizard who had gone from biggest bully in the playground to mass murderer.

Jade, compared to her brother, was normal. She had no scar and no fame; in fact, most people didn't even know she existed. She was just a girl, quite pretty but not overly so. She had black hair, which she kept long so that the natural horrendous curls would ease into nice waves. Where her brother had inherited his father's brown eyes, she had inherited her mother's startling green eyes. Her skin was lightly tanned which contrasted nicely with her eyes, and marked her as an outdoors person. She was rather short and perhaps a bit thin. She was nothing like her brother, as surprising as that may be.

"Jade!"

The girl looked at her mother who was advancing towards her, having finished saying goodbye to Christopher. Jade smiled. Out of her two parents, Lily was the one she was closest to. She admired the red haired woman both for her beauty and her kindness.

"You'll be careful as well, won't you love?" said Lily wrapping her arms around her daughter.

"Of course, you know me: I'm always prudent." Lily snorted, if there was something Jade was not, it was prudent. The raven haired girl had a tendency for reckless behaviour.

"Of course." said Lily sarcastically. "Anyway, have fun, and look after your brother for me." The red haired woman deposited a kiss on the girl's forehead.

"All right. Bye Mum."

With a last kiss to her mother and a quick hug to her father, Jade climbed on the Hogwarts Express, followed closely by Christopher.

"Shall we go and get an empty compartment then?" asked Christopher.

Jade glanced at him. He seemed nervous, but didn't he always? Chris, as she called him, could be a bit of a wimp at times, if not most times.

"That's what I had in mind, yes." she replied, peering into the compartments they passed.

They finally found an empty one, and dropped on the seats.

"Phew! Never thought it would be that difficult to find a seat!" exclaimed Jade.

"Yeah, and it looked like there was some kind of commotion at the front of the train." said Christopher shifting nervously.

"Chris, you're not nervous are you? You don't need to be! You're the Boy-Who-Bloody-Lived for Merlin's sake! If you're nervous what am I, poor commoner, supposed to be? Dying of a heart attack?" said Jade rolling her eyes at her brother.

The boy smiled faintly at his sister's antics.

"But what if I'm sorted in Slytherin? I wouldn't live it down, you know I wouldn't." he asked with a worried frown.

The raven haired exploded in laughter.

"Y-you! In Slytherin!" she choked, wiping tears from her eyes. "That's never going to happen, you just don't have what it takes." Christopher turned red.

"You don't have to laugh that much." he grumbled.

After a while, Jade calmed down and Christopher had returned to his normal skin colour. They were chatting about Quidditch when the door of their compartment opened.

"Erm, excuse me." said the red haired boy who had appeared in the doorway. "Can I sit here? Everywhere else is full."

"Sure." said Christopher with a warm smile. "I'm Christopher Potter and this is my sister Jade."

Jade could tell that the newcomer had stopped listening after he had heard 'Christopher Potter'. It was pretty obvious, by the way he was gaping at her brother.

"And, and is it true then, do you have the…you know…" the boy gestured wildly in the direction of Christopher's forehead.

"Oh." said Christopher in understanding and lifted his hair to reveal the scar.

"Wow, that's wicked!" said the red haired, causing Christopher to blush. "I'm Ron Weasley, by the way. I can't believe I just met Christopher Potter."

"Well, you have." said Jade flatly. "I don't know if you had registered or if you even noticed I exist, but I'm Jade Potter, the sister. And I suggest you close your mouth and take a seat."

'Ron' closed his mouth blushing furiously and took a seat opposite the Potters. The two boys starting talking about the sorting, which Jade personally found absolutely ridiculous. After all, it wasn't like the hat's decision would change if you talked about it. She was therefore indulging in the very dull and boring activity of watching the scenery, which wasn't more than a blur. She was nearly thankful, when a girl burst in the compartment; nearly being the key word here. The girl had bushy brown hair and seemed to be a first year as well.

"You haven't seen a toad, have you? A boy called Neville lost one." she said without even bothering to introduce herself.

"No." said Ron, slightly annoyed.

The boy's answer caught Jade's attention and she turned to him. He looked quite foolish actually. He had gotten his wand out and was pointing it at the rat on his knees.

"Oh!" said the girl in the doorway. "Were you going to do magic? Let's see then."

Ron coughed loudly, which made him look even more foolish, and pointed at the rat again.

"Sunshine daisies butter mellow, turn this fat rat yellow!" he recited.

Jade raised an eyebrow, well that certainly didn't sound like a real spell, complete nonsense at best. The bushy haired girl seemed to be thinking along the same lines.

"Are you sure that's a real spell?" she asked mockingly. "I've tried a few spells as well, but they've all worked for me."

She took out her wand.

"For example." she said pointing to a hole in Ron's trousers. "_Reparo_." The hole immediately repaired itself. The two boys looked astonished.

"Not bad." remarked Jade.

The raven haired girl got up and started pulling her robes out of her suitcase.

"We should be arriving soon, so I'm going to change." she announced shooing everybody out.

* * *

Jade jumped of the train and found herself in a crowd of students. She had left Ron and Christopher when she had gotten bored of being ignored. She tried to look around in order to see another first year. Her attempts failed miserably as the older and much taller students blocked her view.

"Are you lost?" Jade turned around and found herself facing two identical red haired boys.

"Yes, I think I am." she replied watching the twins carefully. "You wouldn't happen to be related to Ron Weasley, would you?" the boys grinned.

"Yeah, we are." said the first twin.

"I'm Fred Weasley and this is my brother George." said the second twin. "Ron is our brother."

"I'm Jade Potter." said Jade.

"Right." said Fred.

"First years are going with Hagrid." continued George.

"You may find him in this general direction." said Fred pointing behind her.

"With that said, we'll see you at the sorting." finished George.

With a wave, the two boys disappeared in the crowd. Following their instructions, Jade made her way to the front of the train. Sure enough, she soon heard a powerful bellowing.

"Firs' years, this way! Firs' years!"

She spotted the man easily, as he towered above everyone else. He was impressive and if Jade hadn't known better she would have thought he was a giant. Giants were a lot taller than that, though, maybe he was a half-giant. She walked towards the big man, who was brandishing an equally big lamp, and joined the group of first years.

"Everybody there?" asked the man, Hagrid, looking around the emptying platform. "Better get goin' then."

He led them towards the lake shore where small boats were anchored.

"Come on then. Three per boat."said Hagrid motioning them forward.

Jade saw her brother and Ron getting in a boat with the half-giant. With a shrug, she joined a boy carrying a frog, most likely Neville, and the girl she had met on the train who was actually called Hermione. The ride was rather quiet if you leave aside the toad's croaks and Hermione's endless quoting of _Hogwarts, A History_. When the castle appeared in the fog, even Hermione stopped talking, awed by the majesty of the view. When they reached the shore, they left the boats and followed Hagrid inside the castle. The man led them up a flight of stairs and told them to wait in front of the massive oak doors. Meanwhile, Jade had escaped from Hermione and was now standing by her brother's side. Christopher was still chatting with Ron about whatever it was that boys talked about.

"So it's true then!" said a blond boy walking up to them, followed by two big guys who looked incredibly stupid. Maybe they weren't, but they looked like they were all the same. "Christopher Potter has come to Hogwarts." excited murmurs broke out all around them.

"I'm Draco Malfoy." said the boy.

Jade heard Ron snicker. She was going to tell him off for being rude but the blond boy took matters in his own hands.

"Think my name's funny, do you?" he said scornfully. "No need to ask who you are; red haired and hand-me downs robes. You must be a Weasley." he said spitefully before turning back to Christopher. "You'll soon realise that you don't want to hang with the wrong sort." he glared at Ron. "I can help you there." said Malfoy offering his hand.

Seeing her brother's frozen expression, Jade decided to act. She pushed him and Ron out of the way, plastering a smile on her face.

"It's delightful to meet you!" she said grabbing the boy's hand and shaking it with a bit too much enthusiasm. "I'm Jade Potter, the sister. It's really nice to meet you, Madboy was it?"

"It's Malfoy." spat the blond boy, pulling his hand out of her grasp.

His retort, which would undoubtedly have been very rude, was stopped by a sharp tap of a roll of parchment on his shoulder. A stern-looking woman was standing in front of the group. She waited until Malfoy and his goons had moved aside before talking.

"I am Professor McGonagall, Deputy Headmistress, Head of Gryffindor House and Transfiguration teacher here at Hogwarts." she said with a strong Scottish accent. "Now, in a few minutes, I will take you in the Great Hall and you will be sorted in your houses. There are: Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, Gryffindor and Slytherin." Malfoy looked at his friends with a knowing expression. "While you are here, your house will be your family. Good deed will earn your house points . Behave badly, and points will be taken. At the end of the year, the house with the most points will win the House Cup." She peered at them over her glasses. "Now, follow me."

She led them through the oak doors that swung open, and into the Great Hall where all the other students were already sitting at their house's table. Professor McGonagall led the first years to the other side of the room, in front of the staff table. She stopped next to a stool where a hat, which Jade recognised as the Sorting Hat, was installed. Professor McGonagall rolled out her parchment and picked the hat up.

"When I call your name, you will step forward and sit on the stool. I will place the hat on your head and you will be sorted." she said. "Bones Susan."

A blonde and chubby girl went to sit on the stool. She looked up nervously at the hat as it fell on her eyes.

"Hufflepuff!" cried the hat.

The hall erupted in applause as the girl went to join her house.

"Brown Lavender." called McGonagall.

In the same way 'Brown Lavender' was sorted in Gryffindor and so was 'Finnigan Seamus', 'Granger Hermione', 'Longbottom Neville' (Jade had no idea how that had happened) and 'Patil Parvati'. 'Patil Padma' was sorted in Ravenclaw and 'Crabbe Vincent', 'Goyle Gregory' and 'Malfoy Draco' were sorted in Slytherin. In the blond's case the hat had called his house when he had barely touched the boy's head.

"Potter Christopher."

The hall went deathly silent. Jade watched as her brother went to sit on the stool. Professor McGonagall deposited the hat on his head hiding his face from view.

"Gryffindor!" cried the hat.

Christopher's face reappeared as McGonagall lifted the hat. He jumped from the stool with abroad grin and went to sit with his house mates. The cheers were deafening. Jade could hear the distant voices of the Weasley twins chanting 'we got Potter' while some other students banged the tables wildly. At some point, the noise lessened enough for Pofessor McGonagall to be heard. Well, at least by the remaining first years.

"Potter Jade." she called.

The raven haired girl stepped forward and sat on the stool. Nobody paid any attention to her sorting, all of them being too preoccupied to applaud her brother, who had actually done nothing extraordinary. As the hat was lowered onto her eyes, she noticed a pair of grey eyes looking at her. Malfoy. It was ironic really, that the obnoxious blond prat she hadn't liked from the minute she saw him, was now the only one to pay attention to her.

"Aaah! Difficult, very difficult." said a low voice in her head. "Plenty of courage, I see. Not a bad mind either. There's talent, Oh yes, and a thirst to prove yourself. But where to put you?"

"Just don't put me in Slytherin! Not Slytherin." thought Jade. "Not with that prat!"

"Not Slytherin, ey? Are you sure? You could be great, you know, it's all there in your head. And Slytherin will help you on the way to greatness. No doubt about that." said the voice.

"Not Slytherin. Not with Malfoy!" thought the girl desperately.

"No? Well if you're sure. Better be…GRYFFINDOR!" the last word had been a tremendous yell which caused the Hall to fall into an absolute silence once again.

There was no applause as Jade got up and slowly walked to Gryffindor table, there were only confused looks. Jade knew that most of them hadn't even heard her name, but that didn't matter she thought, she'd make sure they would learn it and remember it.

The last first years were sorted including Ron Weasley who became a Gryffindor and Blaise Zabini who became a Slytherin. When all the students were seated the headmaster raised his hands.

"May the feast, begin!" he bellowed.

Various dishes appeared on the tables and the students started eating chatting loudly. Christopher didn't turn to his sister even once as he was busy answering the many questions that unknown people were asking him. Jade resented him a bit for that. Was answering a stranger's stupid question more important than his sister? Her bitter thoughts were interrupted by the arrival of ghosts in the hall. Jade merely glanced at them before returning to her food.

"It's nice that you were sorted in Gryffindor." Jade lifted her head and looked at Hermione with disbelief. "Well, it is! I mean I'm glad that there is someone I know!" said the bushy haired girl blushing.

"Thanks Hermione." said Jade simply, smiling.

* * *

After the feast had ended, Jade joined Hermione and the other first years, and they all followed one of the Gryffindor prefects, who happened to be another Weasley. They climbed the stairs to the seventh floor, Percy Weasley in the lead. Some younger students were watching the staircases warily, the prefect having told them that they sometimes moved. At last, they arrived in front of a portrait called the Fat Lady. The name was very fitting as the woman pictured in the portrait could have, indeed, benefited from a loss of weight.

"Password?" asked the woman.

"Caput Draconis." said Percy loud enough for all of them to hear.

The portrait swung to the side, revealing a hole in the wall. The prefect led them inside. They stopped in a large circular room decorated in red and gold. It looked like a sitting room with its sofas and armchairs. There were also tables and chairs in a corner of the room.

"This is the Gryffindor Common Room." said Percy. "The girl's dormitories is up the stairs on the right. For the boys, same on the left."

Jade followed Hermione up the stairs and into the girls' dormitories. It was separated in rooms of four to six girls of the same year. Jade found that she was in a room with Hermione, Parvati Patil and Lavender Brown. The raven haired girl immediately walked to her bed which she recognized upon seeing her suitcase and Hedwig's cage. Hedwig was a snowy owl her parents had given her for her birthday. She petted the owl for a bit before taking her pajamas out of her suitcase and changing for bed. Tucked into her warm sheets, she fell asleep swiftly.

* * *

Author's note: The sorting is the same as in the books, so all the students I have not mentioned are in the houses J.K. Rowling put them into.

Also, I really can't remember which dormitory was on the left and which was on the right, so if I made a mistake on this please forgive me.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I still do not own any of the characters.

* * *

During Jade's first day of school, she had a life changing revelation: she loved Potions. Of course, she had this revelation after her double Potions class with Professor Snape. After breakfast the Gryffindor first years joined the Slytherins for Potions. The classroom was located in the dungeons. Jade had a very bad first impression. The place was cold, poorly lit and had no windows. In short, the kind of places which made her feel claustrophobic. Every student paired up with another and they waited for the teacher to arrive. As Christopher had paired up with Ron (very surprising!), Jade was left to choose between Hermione and Neville. She decided the latter was a public danger and it was best to observe him from afar. Therefore she went to sit by Hermione in the front row. She started taking out her things and arranged them in front of her. A sudden gust of wind and a bang (the door) announced the arrival of Professor Snape. The greasy haired man marched in the classroom with his black robes billowing around him. It made him look like a giant bat, really, not that anyone would dare to tell him that.

"There will be no foolish wand waving or silly incantations in this class." drawled the teacher as he advanced towards the front of the class. "As such, I don't expect many of you to appreciate the subtle science and exact art that is potion-making. However, for those select few... Who possess, the predisposition..." he glanced at the Slytherins, clearly showing that he didn't expect any Gryffindors to have said predispositions. "I can teach you how to bewitch the mind and ensnare the senses. I can tell you how to bottle fame, brew glory, and even put a stopper in death."

With this impressive speech, he turned to look at Christopher.

"Potter! Tell me what I would get if I add powder rood of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?" he snapped.

Christopher looked bewildered. With good reasons too, the poor boy had probably never of any of these before. Well Jade couldn't help him there because she didn't know the answer either. She shot her brother a look that basically meant 'stick for yourself for once'. The raven haired girl glanced to her side where Hermione had shot her hand up in the air as soon as Professor Snape had finished asking the question. Jade looked at the bushy haired girl with an amused smile, she half expected the girl to start jumping up and down to get the teacher's attention.

"You don't know?" said Professor Snape not looking away from Christopher. "Let's try again then. Where would you look if I tell you to find me a besoar?"

Again, Christopher looked completely lost while Hermione raised her hand. Jade raised an eyebrow, was that even something first years were supposed to know? And what was a besoar anyway? A barbarian tribe? Snape gave a long suffering sigh.

"Let's try one last time. What is the difference between Monkshood and Wolf's bane?" he asked.

Ah! Jade knew that one! Well, of course she would since one of her father's best friends was a werewolf and Wolf's bane was used in Wolfsbane Potion, truly surprising. The raven haired girl smiled at her brother; surely he knew the answer to that question. Her smile vanished when she realised, thanks to his baffled expression, that no, he did not, in fact, know the answer. She gave him an aggravated look which caused him to blush. Then, she plastered a smile on her face and turned to Professor Snape.

"They are actually the same plant, sir. They are also called aconite." she said brightly.

The man turned his dark eyes at her and scowled.

"I do not remember giving you the right to answer that question." he spat.

"Oh! I'm so sorry!" she said in a high-pitched voice, her eyes widening in false shock. "Since you just said Potter, I didn't realize you were talking specifically to my brother."

That, of course, was a downright lie. Let's face it she would have needed to be completely brainless to not have understood he was talking to Christopher. But did Professor Snape need to know she was not, actually, completely brainless? No, he didn't. And she was going to use that to her advantage.

Professor Snape was looking at her blankly. He was probably a little confused. Jade decided to give him a helping hand, or a helping word.

"I'm Jade Potter." she explained. "That's why I thought you were addressing the both of us." she said with an 'apologetic' smile and a bat of her eyelashes.

She normally found such an attitude disgusting, which was precisely why she was inflicting it on the professor.

"Ten points from Gryffindor for talking without being asked to." said Professor Snape giving her one last menacing look and turning away. "Follow the instructions on the board and get started."

The greasy haired man waved his wand and the instructions for a Boil Cure Potion appeared on the board. Hermione immediately started setting up the cauldron. Jade decided she had better gather the ingredients as it was the safest part. She picked the ingredients and brought them back to the table. Hermione took matters into her own hands and started following the instructions. Jade found herself crushing snake fangs. It was actually a very interesting activity, you had to put enough pressure on the pestle and sometimes bang it down on the mortar. Jade was very absorbed in her crushing, when the mortar was taken from her hands. She gave Hermione an accusing look as the bushy haired girl added the crushed fangs to the cauldron. It seemed Hermione had quickly realized that Jade had absolutely no talent for Potions and she made sure to give the raven haired girl only the simplest tasks. As Hermione gave the five final stirs to the potion, Jade's attention was caught by Neville. She sat up straighter on her stool and watched eagerly as he added the porcupine quills before taking the cauldron of the fire. Of course, she didn't know exactly what would happen but since the recipe said to take the cauldron off the fire first, then she supposed something had to happen. She watched with pure glee as Neville's cauldron started to melt.

She was still laughing as Hermione dragged her to Transfiguration.

"You know it's not very nice to laugh at Neville." said the bushy haired girl.

"I'm not. I'm laughing at the face Snape made when he saw the melting cauldron." said Jade rolling her eyes.

Hermione giggled and pushed her inside Professor McGonagall's classroom. The two girls went to sit at the front (it seemed it was part of Hermione's religion to always sit closest to the teachers, or maybe she thought her grades would drop if she was at the back…).

"Welcome to Transfiguration." said the Scottish woman. "My class will be one of the hardest. Transfiguration is a very difficult kind of magic and can be dangerous if attempted recklessly."

With this the old woman proceeded to change her desk into a pig and back again. She wore a small smile as she looked at the awed faces of her student. Jade decided that Transfiguration was cool and deserved her full attention. Apparently she wasn't the only one to think that since there was an almost religious silence as Professor McGonagall started her class. She explained their first chapter which was about transforming an object into another object and gave them their assignment. The students obediently started to work. Jade watched as the professor turned into a cat and jumped on her desk to sit on it. Upon seeing the woman was an Animagus Jade's admiration for her doubled. In Jade's book, Animagi were the coolest things that existed. With a fresh determination she started writing down the requirements of an object transfiguration. She had reached the part where you had to give the different types of Transfiguration and sort them by their level of difficulty when the door flew open. Christopher and Ron came in, twenty minutes late. They both looked around probably to see where the teacher was and the red haired boy made a comment about being lucky that Professor McGonagall wasn't there yet. Jade snorted. The cat jumped from the desk and Professor McGonagall appeared in its place.

"That was so cool!" exclaimed Ron.

"Thank you Mr Weasley." said Professor McGonagall with a smile. "I shall be taking twenty points from Gryffindor for your lateness. Now take your seats and start working."

The two boys nodded sheepishly and went to sit at the back. Jade rolled her eyes at her brother and went back to her work. First was the object to object transfiguration which was the less difficult…

* * *

During lunchtime the next day, Hedwig delivered a newspaper to Jade. The raven haired girl was a bit surprised as normally it should have been delivered with the morning post, but then maybe Hedwig had needed a little time to adjust to her new environment. Deciding that it was surely that, she picked up the newspaper. The title '**Gringotts broken in**' was written on top of the front page.

"Gringotts was broken in? Fancy that!" she said to no one in particular.

"What do you mean?" asked Hermione who obviously didn't see why she should 'fancy that'.

"Gringotts is supposed to be the safest place in the world, first wizarding bank and first-rate protection. Only Hogwarts could compete and that's only because we have Dumbledore." replied Jade skimming the article.

"But it was broken in?" asked Hermione. "That must mean it's not that well protected."

"It is. Apparently, the vault that was broken in, the vault 713, had been emptied earlier that day and as a result the protection devices weren't all in place." explained Jade.

The green eyed girl dropped the newspaper on the table and started eating.

"Peculiar coincidence though." she said thoughtfully.

"What do you mean?" this time it was Christopher who had asked.

"It's peculiar because the chances that a vault that had just been emptied would be broken into are very low." replied Hermione impatiently.

"I'd say it's just bad luck for the guy who broke in." said Ron proving once again that if he had brains he didn't use them a lot.

Jade and Hermione sent him an aggravated look but didn't deem it necessary to waste time replying. Instead they ate their lunch and started talking about the Defence Against the Dark Arts assignment they had been given by Professor Quirell. The Defence teacher was a strange person. He was a pale man who wore a turban that he had supposedly received from an African prince for getting rid of a vampire. For a Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, Jade thought he was a bit of a coward. Well, that was an understatement; the guy looked like he could be afraid of his own shadow!

Anyway, the point was that he had given them an assignment on the curses that came from Magical Creatures. Jade had decided to write her assignment on unicorns. Once they had finished their lunch, Hermione suggested they went to the library to work on their Defence work. Jade declined saying she was going to go and get some first-hand material. By that she meant going to see Hagrid. The half-giant (he was, in fact, or at least according to the Weasley twins), had turned out to be the Gamekeeper at Hogwarts. Jade reckoned the man would have some knowledge on Magical Creatures. Therefore she left the castle and walked to his hut. It was a little distance away from the castle, near the Forbidden Forest, which was, as its name indicated, forbidden to all students. The raven haired girl climbed the three little steps and knocked on the sturdy wooden door. Inside, a dog started barking and scratching the door while heavy footsteps approached the door. the door opened revealing the tall bearded man.

"Hello." said Jade. "I'm Jade Potter, a first year. Actually, I came to ask you some questions on unicorns for an assignment I was given." she announced politely.

"Oh, well all righ'. C'mon in." said the Gamekeeper pushing back his dog so that she could enter the hut. "Don' be afraid of Fang. He's more afraid of ya than ya are of him."

"Right." said Jade with a suspicious glance at the hound.

Hagrid motioned her to sit at the wooden table and started preparing tea. Meanwhile, Jade examined the house. It was small. The bed was in one corner and the kitchen in the other. The table she was sitting at was in the middle of the room. Animal pelts were hanging everywhere in the cabin. Some of them were pretty valuable. Jade noticed a bunch of unicorn hair hanging on one of the wooden beams.

"So what did ya want to ask?" said the man placing a mug of tea in front of her before sitting across the table.

"Yes, well the assignment is about curses that come from Magical Creatures so I thought about unicorn blood. Do you know anything about it?" she asked.

"Unicorn blood, ey. Well ya see, unicorns are pure creatures. Killin' one is a horrible crime. If ya drink their blood ya'll survive no matter how close ya are to death. But because killin' a unicorn is such a crime ya'll be cursed all through yar life." explained the man.

"What kind of curse?" asked Jade sipping her tea.

"Can be any kind, like continuous bad luck and such." said Hagrid in his gruff voice. "Anyway, tis rare for da students to come talk ta me. They usually go ta the library."

"Yes, well, I believe in seeking knowledge out of books. Also asking someone has its advantages. For example, I could have found the properties of unicorn blood in one book and then I would have needed to find another one that would have explained the kind of curse it inflicted; while I can just ask you directly the questions I have." she explained. "And I thought that as you were the Gamekeeper you would be the most knowledgeable person about these things."

The man looked rather pleased at that last comment. It seemed it wasn't often that he was given recognition. Jade smiled; Hagrid was a bit like a child, pleased at the first compliment you gave him. But then again, he might not receive a lot, after all there were quite a lot of people who thought that half-giants were stupid and lesser beings. This was absolutely not true, Hagrid may not have been the sharpest quill in the ink pot but he was a very nice person and knew his stuff when it came to Magical Creatures.

Jade drank the last of her tea and got up.

"Thank you very much for your help. I think I will be going to write that assignment now." she said smiling at the man.

"Sure. Come back whenever ya want, Jade." said Hagrid brightly, waving her goodbye as she left the hut.

Jade waved back and started her walk back to the castle. Unfortunately enough, she ran in a group of Slytherin led by, God was merciless, Draco Malfoy.

"Made friends with the oaf, have you?" scorned the blond boy.

"Somehow, I don't recall becoming friends with you, Madboy. You must be mistaken." she said frowning as if she was trying to recall such an event.

"It's Malfoy." spat Malfoy, his cheeks reddening. "And I wasn't talking about me, I was talking about the half giant."

"Oh! Why didn't you say so?" exclaimed Jade in a falsely innocent tone. "When you said 'the oaf', I thought for sure it was you."

Malfoy sent her a venomous look and walked away followed by his two self-appointed bodyguards, Crabbe and Goyle. Humming joyfully, Jade entered the castle and walked up the stairs. She might as well go and write her assignment in the library since the Common Room was bound to be noisy at this time of the day.

* * *

Author's note: Thank you for reading and please review!


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: I do not own these characters.**

**Author's Note: I might not have followed the plot of the original story, at least the order of the main events.**

* * *

"Jade! Jade, wake up!" yelled Hermione as she desperately tried to wake the raven haired girl.

"Don't want too." groaned Jade burying her head deeper in her pillow.

Really why couldn't people be allowed to sleep on Wednesdays mornings? Wait Wednesday? Wasn't there something scheduled for Wednesday? The gears in Jade's brains started turning. Wednesday. Wednesday. And then it hit her. Literally actually. Hermione had finally decided to resort to violence and had slammed a book on the raven haired girl's head. Taking pity on the poor book, which was most likely _Hogwarts, A History_, Hermione's bible, Jade got up mumbling darkly under her breath. Not too darkly though as she had remembered that today was her first flying lesson. She had been looking forward to it. She loved Quidditch and had always wanted to learn flying. Her father, however, had been more focused on teaching Christopher everything he knew. Jade had a suspicion it was because James could see himself in his son; after all, the boy looked so much like his father it was criminal. Therefore Jade hadn't learned to fly.

"Jade, hurry up." came Hermione's shrill yell from the stairs.

"Yeah, yeah." replied Jade lazily as she left the bathroom.

Hermione should be thankful that Jade didn't need an hour to get ready, or else she would have died of impatience by now, considering that she had only taken ten minutes. The raven haired girl joined her friend and both of them went to eat breakfast. Hermione was reading frantically. Jade glanced at the book…and sighed.

"Hermione." she said with the tone of a psychoanalyst. "Reading about flying won't help you do it right, you know? Flying is one of the things that you can't learn out of books."

The bushy haired girl looked at her as if she had blasphemed and went back to her book without answering. Jade sighed again and turned her attention to her sausages. She was sure there had been something negative about today, a part from the fact that today would be the ninth day that she spent without talking to Christopher. Not that she wasn't trying to! But it seemed that absolute prat had forgotten he had a sister and hadn't come to see her for the last eight days. And when she tried to talk to him, he always had something better to do! Damn prat! Ah! That's what it was! The word prat had established a connection between two parts of her brains and she now recalled the negative aspect of the day.

"We have flying class with the Slytherins!" she exclaimed loudly.

"Obviously." said Hermione rolling her eyes over her book.

Jade ignored her. Well that was bad news. Not that it was new really, she had known for weeks. It's just that as she had forgotten all about it, it now seemed new. Not that it mattered, what mattered here was that she would be surrounded by prats during a lesson which was supposed to be enjoyable. Jade spent the rest of breakfast trying to think of any kind of bad deeds she could have done to be cursed in such a way.

By the time they went to their flying class, Jade's bad mood had vanished and she was humming as she and Hermione walked down to the lawn. They joined the group of students, which was, as per usual, separated into two groups. The Slyhterins and the Gryffindors never mixed. There was an intense dislike between the two houses which was passed down religiously to the new generation every year. Madam Hooch soon joined them and the class started immediately.

"Well, what are you waiting for?" asked Madam Hooch loudly. "Step to the side of your brooms."

The students obeyed and went to stand to the right side of the school brooms that were laid on the grass.

"Now, put your hand over the broom and say 'up'." she instructed.

Jade extended her hand.

"Up." she said firmly.

The broom shut up in her hand with such force that she staggered a little. She looked around her with a happy grin. Most people were still calling for their brooms. Malfoy already had his in hand and was wearing a smug smile. Christopher had managed to get his after the third try. Hermione's was rolling on the floor, stubbornly refusing to fly in her outstretched hand. At last, everybody had their brooms in hand. Madam Hooch placed a whistle on her lips as she gave her instructions.

"When I blow the whistle, kick the ground hard, hover for a few minutes, and lean on your broom to go back down." she said.

The woman blew her whistle. Before any of them had time to get in the air, Neville lost control of his broom. The panicked boy was slowly rising in the air.

"Mister Longbottom! Mis-mister Longbottom!" called Madam Hooch trying to get the boy to focus his attention on her.

With a cry Neville flew away. The broom took speed, it tossed and turned wildly. It flew straight to the castle where Neville's robes were caught by the sword of a statue. He hung on the sword for an instant and then his robes ripped and he fell. Thankfully he was caught by another statue. Once again the robes ripped after a few seconds of supporting the boy's weight and he fell to the ground. Madam Hooch ran towards him and lifted him up to his feet.

"Tut, tut, this looks like a broken wrist." she told Neville.

The boy was lucky he only had a broken wrist and yet he was whimpering pathetically. Wimp, thought Jade. How the boy ever got in Gryffindor was beyond her; but then who knew, he might have some hidden talent, very well hidden certainly but a talent nonetheless. Maybe.

Madam Hooch turned to the gathered students.

"I am going to take Mr Longbottom to the hospital wing." she told them. "While I'm gone, you are all to keep your feet firmly on the ground. If I catch any of you flying, you will be out of Hogwarts before you can say 'Quidditch'."

On these words, she left with Neville. Jade turned her attention back to the group with an annoyed sigh. She had been excited about this class, and Neville had managed to ruin it. It wasn't even funny what had happened to him, it wasn't fun when someone got hurt. Laughing at such a thing would have been bad taste. Her eyes narrowed as she watched Malfoy pick a glass ball from the ground. Wasn't that Neville's remembrall?

"Look! The idiot dropped his remembrall!" sneered Draco confirming the raven haired girl's suspicions.

"Give it here, Malfoy!" she said with all the authority she could muster.

The blond boy turned to look at her.

"No. I think I'll leave it somewhere for him to find." the blond climbed on his broom and kicked the ground. "How about up a tree?" he asked as he flew upwards.

Jade clenched her teeth. That prat was going too far, and she had even made an effort to call him by his actual name! She gripped her broom and mounted it. She kicked the ground and flew to Malfoy's level. Somehow, flying came to her naturally and, boy, did it feel great to be up in the air. In her exhilaration Jade nearly forgot why she had come up in the first place.

"Are you going to come and get it?" asked Malfoy. "Here you go, then!" the Slytherin tossed the glass ball as hard as he could.

Jade dived hand outstretched to catch the glass ball. She managed to catch it just before she came into contact with the castle's wall. Clutching the ball tightly she flew back to the ground under the cheers of her fellow Gryffindors. Her brother had a weird look on his face but she decided not to bother about it. She landed gracefully and accepted her housemates' compliments.

"Miss Potter!" called a stern voice.

Jade turned around. Professor McGonagall was marching towards them. She stopped a little distance away.

"Never in my life have I seen….It was very reckless of you Miss Potter, very reckless." said the Transfiguration teacher visibly at a loss for words. "Follow me."

Jade obeyed broom still in hand. Neither of them talked as they walked through the corridors. Professor McGonagall led her to the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom. The woman told Jade to wait outside.

"Can I borrow Wood for a minute?" Jade heard Professor McGonagall ask.

The girl frowned what was Wood? Was it some kind of stick they used to beat the students? No, she admonished herself; that would be illegal. She heard the stuttering response of Quirell and Professor McGonagall came out followed by a fifth year boy. Both 'Wood' and Jade exchanged questioning looks.

"Miss Potter, this is Oliver Wood, he is the Captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch team." said the old woman. "Wood, I've found you a Seeker!"

The boy, Wood, looked shocked at that statement and examined Jade with a new interest. McGonagall led them to her office where she and Wood lunched into a discussion that Jade barely listened to. Had they said Seeker? For Gryffindor? Her? This was absolutely brilliant! Or perhaps it was not, she might make an absolute fool of herself. After all, she had only flown once and it might have been her getting lucky. Wait, she was a first year; first years weren't allowed to play Quidditch.

"Erm, excuse me, but I thought first years weren't allowed to play Quidditch, right?" she asked nervously looking between them for confirmation.

"I'll ask Albus to make an exception. We cannot let such talent pass. I wouldn't be able to look at Severus in the face if Slytherin flattens us again." said the professor full of determination.

"I see." said Jade blinking rapidly.

"Anyway Wood I'm leaving Miss Jade Potter to you. I will take care of obtaining permission and Miss Potter's broom." said the woman ushering them out.

Wood lost no time in setting a meeting with Jade so that he could see her flying abilities for himself and explain the rules of the game in depth. He left her about twenty minutes later. Jade stood there stupidly standing in the corridor, her brain still trying to process what had happened.

* * *

"And they made Seeker?" asked Hermione for the umpteenth time.

"Yes!" replied a delighted Jade. "According to Wood, I'm the youngest Seeker in a century."

The two girls were walking towards the Great Hall for lunch. Jade was positively radiant.

"Hi Jade." called George appearing at her side.

"We just heard the news from Wood." said Fred who had appeared by Hermione.

"We're on the team too, Beaters." explained George. "Tough game Quidditch."

"Tough, but wicked." agreed his brother. "Anyway, don't worry because we'll make sure that your pretty face doesn't get destroyed by Bludgers. It's the least we can do really, you have the toughest place in the team."

"The Seekers are the players that are most injured." added George. "Sometimes they even disappear. But never fear, they reappear after a month or two." called the red haired boy as he and his brother turned in another corridor.

"Oh really, did they need to say that?" huffed Hermione angrily.

"It doesn't matter Mione." soothed Jade. "Come on we have Charms after lunch so we had better not be late."

The raven haired dragged the other girl to the Gryffindor table. The two girls piled food on their plates still chatting. At some point, Jade turned around to find water and she noticed Christopher looking at her. She smiled at her brother, but the boy just gave her a weird look and went back to his food.

"Is it just me or is Chris weird, these days?" she asked frowning.

"Maybe, I didn't really notice." replied Hermione distractedly.

As her eyes scanned absent-mindedly at the Great Hall, Jade caught sight of a blond Slytherin glaring at her. More out of habit than anything she glared back at Draco Malfoy. Many people in the surrounding would later swear that their glares had connected into a sort of surge of thunder. Feeling extremely satisfied the raven haired girl started eating again. At least, some things didn't change.

* * *

That evening, she ran back to Gryffindor tower to meet up with Wood. The older boy was already waiting for her with a large wooden chest. The two of them made their way to the Quidditch Pitch. It was a relief for both of them when they could finally dump the heavy chest on the grass.

"All right. Do you know the rules of Quidditch?" asked Wood.

Jade nodded.

"There's seven players on a team: three Chasers, two Beaters, one Keeper and a Seeker. The Chasers play with the Quaffle and try to earn points by putting it in one of the three hoops on opposite team. The Beaters knock out other players with the Bludgers and keep them from hitting their teammates. The Keepers keeps the goalposts and the Seeker tries to catch the snitch to end the game." she recited.

"That's right." Wood nodded his head approvingly. "Now, we'll train with normal balls for a bit. Then I'll release a Bludger and you'll have to catch the balls while making sure you don't get hit."

Catching the balls was easy enough. When Wood threw one Jade dived and caught it before it fell on the floor. Pleased with her reflexes, Wood soon released a Bludger. The black ball zoomed around before coming back straight at her. Jade had a moment of panic upon seeing it fly towards her but swiftly moved to the side. The Bludger missed her by an inch. Jade found it was a lot more difficult to catch the balls when you had a Bludger trying to knock you off your broom. She did manage to catch all of them, though. By the time it had gotten too dark to continue, Wood was ecstatic. They walked back to the castle, discussing strategies and the upcoming games.

When they got up to the Common Room, Hermione came up to Jade and convinced her to accompany her to the library to bring back a book. They still had half an hour before curfew and Jade agreed quickly. It wasn't long until the girls reached the library safely. Hermione gave her book to Madam Pince and the two girls started to climb the stairs back to Gryffindor tower. As they were in the middle of climbing on particular staircase, it started moving.

"Oh God! It's moving!" exclaimed Hermione in a panicked voice.

Jade clutched the side of the stairs but didn't say anything. Blasted staircase! Did it have to move when she was on it? Couldn't it have waited for Malfoy or some other prat? The staircase moved across the different floors and fixed itself on a third floor corridor. The two girls hurriedly got off it before it decided to move again. They went inside the corridor but stopped upon seeing the webs of dust stretching everywhere.

"Don't tell me this is the corridor that's out of bounds." said Jade.

"I think it is." replied Hermione fearfully.

"I told you not to tell me." whined Jade.

A cat's mew made them fall silent.

"Mrs Norris!" whispered Jade and quickly dragged her friend towards a nearby door.

She tried to open it but it was locked.

"Oh move aside." said Hermione pushing her away aside. "_Alohomora_." she whispered with a flick of her wand.

The lock opened and the girls hurriedly got inside. They silently closed the door behind them and listened as Filch joined his cat. The caretaker murmured something to her cat before the sound of his footsteps became more and more distant. The two girls breathed in relief. Jade turned to look at the room they were in…and froze.

"Hermione, don't panic but I think there's a three headed dog behind you." her voice quivered a little.

"What?" asked Hermione confused and turned around.

She saw the giant dog whose eyes were slowly opening and screamed. The raven haired girl grabbed her friend by the arm and pulled her out of the room. Out of the corner of her eye she saw the outline of a trapdoor under the dog's feet, but she dismissed the thought quickly. The dog had woken up completely and was barking loudly as he tried to push the door open. Thankfully, the girls managed to close the door and lock it again. Still shaking they ran back to Gryffindor tower.

"What the hell was that?" asked Jade as they made their way up to their dormitory.

"No idea." snapped Hermione. "But if you don't mind, I'm going to bed before you get us killed, or worse expelled."

Jade blinked at the bushy haired girl. Their encounter with the three headed dog was hardly her fault. In the first place, it was Hermione who had wanted to go to the library. And there was definitely a problem with her priorities! She shook her head and entered the room. She glanced at Hermione, but the girl refused to look at her as she got ready for bed. Jade sighed and changed in her pajamas. As she snuggled under her warm sheets she thought of the three headed dog. Why would that thing be in Hogwarts? And what was that trapdoor he was standing on?

* * *

**Author's Note:**** As always thank you for reading! Also please don't be shy and review! I'm counting on the reviews to tell me if there's anything that needs to improve.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Ally of Darkness:**** I'm extremely glad to see that someone actually likes this story. Thank you very much for your review (it's actually the first I receive on this story and it's nice to have a feedback), I'm glad you think that Jade doesn't look like she was neglected because that's what I did not want. I mean, with Lily's and James' descriptions in the books I really can't imagine neglecting one of their kids. So anyway thanks a lot for reading and reviewing.**

**Thanks a lot to all my other readers as well, you can't imagine how relieved I am to know that some people can be bothered to read this story! And I hope it will live up to your expectations.**

* * *

It had been a week since Jade and Hermione had encountered the three headed dog. It had been a week since Hermione had last talked to Jade. The bushy haired seemed to be holding a grudge over the incident, to Jade's utter puzzlement. Adding to that that Christopher was refusing to acknowledge her existence, it was with a heavy heart that Jade welcomed Halloween. The raven haired girl had never been overly social and could survive without being surrounded by a pack of friends, but being completely alone was…well, lonely.

Jade walked slowly towards Charms. Classes had lost all their appeal, even Potions wasn't as fun now that she had no one to laugh with. She dragged herself towards an empty seat and slumped on the chair. She was looking at Professor Flitwick without seeing him as the half goblin squeaked excitedly about the levitation spell they had been learning. Jade knew 'the swish and the flick' motion by heart. She was positive she could have done it even if she was hanging upside down. She barely listened as he announced that the incantation was _Wingardium Leviosa_. The green eyed girl glared at the feather in front of her, willing it to levitate without her having to repeat that ridiculous swish and flick move. She swore she would never use it again after they had finished studying it. The mere thought of it was enough to make her feel thick; maybe it was levitation-sickness or something. Or maybe not, levitation-sickness would be if you were sick when you were being levitated…

"Oh, very good, Miss Granger!" squeaked Professor Flitwick.

Interrupted in her intense staring, Jade looked up at the bushy haired girl who was proudly levitating her feather. Next to her, Ron tried the spell as well. He executed the swish and flick motion and said the incantation. When nothing happened he continued to….well….it looked like he was trying to bang the table with his wand but missed the table every single time. Truly appalling. Jade saw Hermione place a hand on the boy's wrist to stop his furious…er…banging.

"Stop! You're going to take someone's eye out." she said bossily. "And you're not doing it right; it's _Wingardium Levi__o__sa_ not _Levios__a_."

Jade lifted an eyebrow. She really hadn't missed that side of Hermione! She caught Christopher's gaze on her, when her green gaze met his, the boy blushed slightly and looked down. Jade frowned. What on earth was wrong with him? She'd have to owl her mother about it. Honestly, if he had something to say then he should say it outright and get the whole ridiculous thing over and done with. She glared furiously at her feather, which was still not levitating, the nerves of it! She raised her wand and pointed at the feather.

"_Wingardium Leviosa_." the feather swiftly levitated.

Deciding she had better make some use of it now that it was in the air, Jade, controlling the feather with her wand, sent it to tickle Ernie McMillan under the nose causing him to sneeze repeatedly. When she got bored of that she let the quill fall back on her desk. Jade was bored enough to count the number of 'ohos' Flitwick included in his sentences. She had arrived at twenty eight when the sound of an explosion was heard. She looked at the origin of the sound. Seamus Finnigan had managed to somehow put his feather on fire, which would have been fine if he hadn't somehow made it explode in the process. Thankfully, it seemed neither he nor any of the neighboring students had gotten hurt. Seamus' face had just considerably blackened and now sported an even darker skin than his best friend Dean Thomas.

Jade was more thankful than she had ever been in her life when the class ended. She left the class and into the cloister, walking a little distance behind Hermione, who was herself behind Christopher, Ron, Dean and Seamus whose face was still black. Jade didn't really try to hear what happened next, she wasn't interested in the first place. Simply, Ron was speaking so loudly it was a sin. Sorry, wrong one (though it's true too). He was speaking so loudly it was impossible not to hear him.

"It's _Wingardium Levi__oo__sa_, not _Levios__aaa_." he said in a bad imitation of Hermione. "That girl's a nightmare, honestly!"

At that point, Hermione nearly ran forward bumping into the red haired boy in the process and escaped inside. Jade had a hunch the bushy haired girl had been crying. Obviously she couldn't be sure as the other girl had had her back to her. She felt a pang of worry for Hermione. No matter how badly she got along with someone she wouldn't wish for them to be insulted like that. And she wasn't even getting along badly with Hermione, they just had a-a disagreement!

Jade didn't try to go after Hermione as she reckoned the girl wouldn't be pleased to see her. Instead she made her way to the owlery. The place smelled strongly but Jade liked it anyway. It was always quiet as most students didn't go up there a lot. Jade sat down against the wall and wrote a quick letter to her mother. She blew on the ink so that it would dry more quickly and rolled up the parchment. Finally she took out a green ribbon from her bag and tied the roll of parchment with it.

"Come here, Hedwig." she called, getting up on her feet.

The snowy owl flew to her and rested on a nearby perch while Jade tied the scroll to her leg.

"There." she announced finally. "Take that to Mum for me, okay." said the raven haired girl as she released the owl out of a window.

She watched as Hedwig flew away, over the Forbidden Forest, finally disappearing in the mist. She stared at the spot where the owl had vanished from her sight for long minutes. At last, she shook herself and left the tower. She had a Transfiguration essay to finish.

* * *

When Jade went down to dinner that evening, she had completely forgotten about Halloween. As such when the Great Hall came into sight she could do nothing but gape while standing in the doorway. The Hall had been decorated in black and orange, there were webs hanging in the corners and bats flying around the room. The enchanted ceiling was picturing a stormy sky. The storm wasn't an added effect even though it looked like it. There was indeed a storm on its way outside and it was reflected on the ceiling. It was all amazingly coincidental but Jade wasn't one who read signs in everything, so of course she didn't think it might have been a sign of great doom.

"Wow." she whispered after gaping at the Hall for two full minutes.

"Wow indeed." agreed Fred Weasley behind her.

"And wait till you see the food!" said Georges.

Jade smiled at them. At last someone was talking to her! Well, she wasn't being fair. Someone had talked to her. Malfoy had come up to her a few times during the week, but that couldn't really be called talking.

She followed the twins to the table and sat near them, which unfortunately was also near Ron and Christopher. She took no notice of the two boys and stuffed herself with delicious food. She had a very good appetite for good food and it amused the twins highly. The both of them kept piling food in her plate just to see her eat it all in no more than a few minutes, without even looking like a glutton. She prided herself in having excellent table manners and she kept them even when she ate as much and as fast as Ron, of course the boy's eating habits were atrocious. She was eating pudding when Professor Quirell, whom she hadn't even noticed wasn't there, barged in the room.

"Troll!" he yelled. "Troll! In the dungeons. Thought you'd want to know."

The man then proceeded to faint right in the middle of the main aisle. There was a general panic. The students were getting up, screaming. It was a horrible mess. Jade calmly finished her pudding and wiped her mouth with a tablecloth which conveniently appeared in front of her.

"SILENCE!"

All the students turned to look at Dumbledore. The headmaster had gotten up from his chair and was looking at them with no trace of panic or fear in his gaze.

"Students will follow the prefects back to their Common Room, without panicking." he said his voice echoing in the silent hall. "Teachers will accompany me to the dungeons."

As soon as the old wizard had finished talking, the prefects started calling their houses and leading them out of the Hall. Jade followed her own house. They had just rounded the corner of the corridor when she suddenly grabbed Christopher's arm. The boy looked at her in confusion. Ron had stopped as well and was also looking at her.

"Hermione! She wasn't at the feast!" she said, starting to panic.

"I heard Lavender say she was in the girl's bathroom." piped up Neville behind them before running after the other Gryffindors.

Jade immediately ran off. Christopher and Ron exchanged a glance before hurrying after her. The raven haired girl stopped as she arrived at the corner of the corridor leading to the bathroom. A giant humanoid with grey skin slowly entered the bathroom.

"The troll." she whispered as the two boys arrived panting heavily.

They heard a crashing sound and Hermione screamed.

"Hermione!" yelled Jade as she ran inside the bathroom.

Jade quickly spotted the bushy haired girl. She was lying under a pile of wood that had once been the toilet cubicles, tears streaming down her face. The raven haired girl looked back at the troll who was lifting his club and charged. She obviously didn't think she was going to stop just by charging at him, but she hoped that would distract the troll. It had the desired effect as the troll turned to her. It easily picked the girl up and threw her. Jade hit the wall and fell on the ground. Meanwhile Christopher and Ron had started to throw fallen pieces of wood to distract the troll. The distraction gave Jade enough time to get back on her feet. She took her wand out and pointed it towards the troll's club which was about to be flung at the boys.

"_Wingardium Leviosa_." she said with a perfect swish and flick motion.

The troll stared stupidly at his empty hand. He then raised his face to the club which was levitating above his head. While his non-existent brain was processing the information, Jade released the club and it fell right on the troll's head, knocking it down. The troll fell to the ground with an exaggerated motion. He had barely finished falling when the teachers appeared in the room.

"What-what are you all doing here?" asked Professor McGonagall in an unusually high-pitched voice.

"It was my fault, Professor." said Hermione to the general astonishment. "I thought I could take on the troll and went to look for it." she lied. "If-if Jade, Christopher and Ron hadn't come I-I would probably be dead."

Professor McGonagall looked at her as if she had just announced she was pregnant.

"Oh well-that was very foolish of you Miss Granger. I am very disappointed in you." finally said the Transfiguration teacher. "I'll take five points from Gryffindor for your foolishness, Miss Granger." the woman turned to the other three. "As for Miss and Mister Potter as well as Mister Weasley, I do hope you realize how dangerous it was! Five points each for showing bravery." the four students looked at each other with bright smiles. "Now, go to bed all of you." said Professor McGonagall ushering them out of the room.

As Jade followed her brother out of the door, she noticed blood on the floor. She looked more carefully and noted that it came from Snape's leg. His ankle was injured. The Potions Master noticed her gaze and quickly hid the wound. They gazed at each other warily before Jade was forced out the door by Professor McGonagall.

* * *

The next morning was Jade's first Quidditch match. She had gotten down to breakfast, feeling unusually nervous. Hermione and Ron had forced her to eat a little while Christopher sent the weird look she had become accustomed to. After she had managed to get a sausage and an egg down her throat she got up and went down to the Quidditch Pitch, holding the Nimbus 2000 her parents' had bought for her, very firmly.

Her heart was beating fast as she stood with the team under the tiers, waiting for them to take flight.

"Nervous?" asked Wood by her side.

"Yes."

"I was nervous as well during my first match." he said wisely.

"What happened?" asked Jade curiously.

"Er, I took a Bludger in the head two minutes in the game. I woke in hospital a week later." said the older boy.

"Shouldn't have asked." muttered Jade causing Fred and Georges to snigger behind her.

Lee Jordan, who was the commentator, called the teams and all the Gryffindor players mounted their brooms. Jade kicked the ground and she rose along with her teammates. They took position in the air, facing the Slytherin team. Marcus Flint, the Slytherin captain, shook hands with Wood and the match started. After Hooch released the Quaffle, everything happened quickly. The Chasers were passing each other the Quaffle and the beaters were sending Bludgers everywhere. Jade shook her head violently; she was supposed to be looking for the Snitch!

She flew higher so as to get a better view of the Pitch. She was flying around when her broom strated acting up. It bucked and swerved as if it was trying to knock her off. She gripped the broom tightly refusing to fall. After a particular sharp jerk of the broom, Jade found herself hanging in the air with only one hand still clinging to the broom. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw an agitation amongst the staff. She didn't dwell on it too much as the broom had calmed down. She swung herself back on it and raced forward. She had seen the Snitch while she was dangling in the air and was now rushing towards it. The little golden ball escaped at lightning speed. The Slytherin Seeker, a smallish second year boy, had realized she had seen the Snitch and had caught up to her. Suddenly the Snitch dived towards the ground. The two Seekers dived after it. As they neared the ground, the Slytherin Seeker got more nervous and more nervous and pulled out. Jade only straightened her broom at the last minute. She had managed to get considerably closer to the Snitch. Slowly, with her hand stretched in front of her, she got up to her feet. Soon she was more or less surfing on her broom, but she still needed to reach further. She advanced her foot on the tip of the broom and lost her balance. Thankfully, she was close to the ground which enabled her to simply roll rather than flatten herself on the hard surface. She got to her feet. Her hand shot up to her mouth as she felt something flutter inside it. She bent forward opening her mouth and the Snitch fell in her hands. She smiled upon seeing the tiny ball and raised it in the air.

"And Jade Potter has caught the Snitch!" yelled Lee Jordan. "Gryffindor wins!"

The crowd erupted in loud cheers and the Gryffindor team flew towards their Seeker. Jade soon found herself hugged and patted on the head from all sides. Wood was the happiest of them all. He practically carried Jade back to the Gryffindor Common Room where the Gryffindors launched themselves in a victory party.

At some point Jade managed to escape from her teammates and went to see Hermione, Ron and Christopher.

"Jade!" exclaimed Hermione. "Are you all right? Snape was jinxing your broom…"

"What?" cut in Jade.

So that was why her broom had been acting up!

"Yes, I went and sent fire to his robes. He lost eye contact and couldn't continue jinxing the broom." explained the girl.

The information swirled into Jade's head. Snape had tried to jinx her broom. But why? It was Christopher he hated the most, not her...But it had been her who had seen his wound! Maybe there was something he wanted to hide, wanted enough for him to try and kill her. Little by little the pieces of the puzzle were assembling in her head. It couldn't be a coincidence that Snape had gotten injured when there was a three headed dog guarding something in the school. Whatever the dog was guarding and that Snape was trying to find, Jade would find out!

* * *

Author's Note: Thank you all for reading and please review!


	5. Chapter 5

**Again, thank you for reading and please, please give me your reviews (I am desperate for reviews, here!).**

* * *

In the days that followed, Ron, Christopher, Hermione and Jade became inseparable. The troll incident had created a bond between them. Ron had apologised to Hermione and the bushy haired girl had relaxed a bit about breaking rules and she was a lot nicer for it. Jade and her brother were still a bit awkward about each other, Christopher for whatever reason he had had to avoid her and Jade because she could tell there was something wrong with her twin but didn't know what.

One afternoon, they found themselves sitting out on a bench, freezing and surrounded by snow. Snape had kicked them out of the corridor saying they should be outside. Hermione had cast a small purple fire and they sat all around it. Jade was reading _Quidditch Through The Ages_, a book that Hermione had gotten for her in the library.

"Damn it! Jade, I'm sorry." cried Christopher suddenly, jumping up and placing himself in front of his twin.

Jade had jumped nearly dropping her book at her brother's outburst. The boy wasn't one to yell like that, Jade was the one who was hot headed. She looked up at Christopher with surprise written all over her face. Ron and Hermione who had been chatting were also looking at their friend with bewildered expressions.

"I'm sorry. I was being jealous because you did so much better than I was and, and…And I was just being an idiot really, so forgive me?" he said looking at her imploringly.

Jade gaped at him. He, Christopher, the Boy-Who-Lived had been jealous of her? Merlin! The world was coming to an end!

"Chris, you're a complete prat sometimes you know that?" she said weakly.

Her twin, recognising the acceptance of his apology, smiled brightly. He pulled her up and hugged her tightly.

"Sorry." he whispered again in her ear.

Jade just tightened her grip, grinning widely as she hugged her prat of a brother.

"Guys, this is all very touching but Snape is coming this way." said Ron alarmed.

The twins separated and looked towards the castle.

"How about we visit Hagrid?" suggested Jade upon seeing the Potions Master approaching.

"Good idea." said Hermione.

The four of them quickly left towards the hut. Jade was holding Christopher's hand as they used to do when they were younger. She would die before she admitted it out loud, but the separation with her brother had started to get to her. At times, he could a prat and a wimp but she loved him all the same. And wasn't that normal between siblings?

They arrived in front of the wooden house and Jade knocked on the door. She heard the familiar heavy footsteps and Fangs' barks and the door opened.

"Jade!" greeted the half giant. "It's nice to see ya again!"

Jade and her friends were motioned inside and they all went to squeeze at the small table while Hagrid started to make tea.

"So, who're yar lot, then?" asked the Gamekeeper.

"This is my twin brother Christopher." said Jade motioning to her twin. "And these two are our friends Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley."

"Nice to meet ya." said Hagrid turning to examine them. "So what are ya all here for?"

"Well, actually we wanted to escape from Snape and I thought it would be nice to visit you sinceit's been a while." explained Jade.

Hagrid placed mugs of tea in front of them.

"And why are ya runnin' away from Professor Snape?" asked the half-giant.

"Well, considering he tried to kill Jade during the last Quidditch match, we don't really like him." said Hermione.

"Kill Jade? Snape? Ya musta been mistaken. Why would Snap try ta kill Jade when he's one of da teachers protectin' the…" Hagrid paused suddenly. "I shouldn'ta said that…" he muttered.

"Protect what?" asked Jade eagerly. "Does it have anything to do with that three headed dog?"

Christopher and Ron, who had not been there when Hermione and Jade encountered the Cerberus, looked completely bewildered.

"How d'ya know 'bout Fluffy?" asked Hagrid.

"That thing has a name?" said Hermione in amazement.

"Of course he has, he's mine." replied Hagrid.

"So what is Fluffy protecting then?" asked Jade.

"I'm not gonna tell ya that. Tis a matter between Dumbledore and Nicolas Flamel." said Hagrid firmly.

"Oh, so there's a Nicolas Flamel in this!" said Jade grinning.

"Shouldn'ta told ya that…" grumbled the man. "Out all of ya!" he said shooing them outside.

The door was banged shut in the four students' face.

"So what's that about a three headed dog?" asked Christopher casually.

"Well, Hermione and I were coming back from the library…"

* * *

Jade, Christopher, Ron and Hermione spent the last weeks before Christmas researching Nicolas Flamel without any success. At last, it was time for Hermione and Ron to go home for the holydays. Jade and Christopher's parents had decided to visit some long lost relative and it had been decided that the children would stay at Hogwarts for the holyday.

"I feel so sorry for the people who have to stay at Hogwarts for Christmas!" scorned Malfoy as Christopher and Jade were saying goodbye to their friends on the train station.

"It's so nice of you to feel that way, Madboy!" she said in a seemingly touched voice. "You have such a big heart!" she cooed.

The blond looked at her with a look of utter disgust, muttering something about his name being Malfoy. Jade smiled wickedly as she looked at the Slytherin boy get on the train.

"So, it's just, ey, Chris!" said the raven haired girl cheerfully as the both of them walked back up to the castle.

"Yeah." replied her twin laconically.

"So what do you reckon? Shall we go to the library to look for that Nicolas Flamel again?" she asked.

"I suppose yeah." he said in a defeated voice which made his sister laugh.

They spent the rest of the day in the library reading books after books. It was infuriating really, especially since Jade was certain she had heard of that name somewhere before. The problem was, she couldn't remember where. Madam Pince finally kicked them out when it was time for them to go back to their dormitories. Once back in the empty Common Room they found themselves completely lost. The room looked a lot larger and colder when it was empty. The twins grabbed each other's hand.

"You want to sleep together tonight?" asked Christopher.

In truth, they had often slept together back home. It was a habit from they were little. Back then they used to have a lot of nightmares and they had found that sleeping together eased them a bit.

"Yes." she said clutching her twin's hand tighter.

Jade decided that she hated the Common Room without anyone in it. It felt lonely and she hated loneliness. The twins decided that they would sleep in Christopher's bed as boys weren't allowed in the girls' dorm. Not that it would have stopped them normally, but there was a jinx on the stairs to the girls' dormitories and when a boy tried to climb them they turned in a slide. So Jade went to join her twin in his bed after she had gotten ready for bed.

"Night Chris." she said.

"Night Jay." came the muffled reply.

* * *

The next morning was Christmas morning and two piles of presents awaited the twins as they got up. The excitement got to them when they saw the presents at the foot of the bed. They happily opened the packages, ripping the paper and crying in delight when they got a good a present. Jade received sweets from Hermione, a necklace from her parents, a flute from Hagrid and to her bemusement a knitted jumper from Ron's mother. The jumper was green and had a white 'J' knitted at the front. Christopher received a similar jumper except his was red with a yellow 'C'. A single present was left at the foot of the bed; it was from their father and was addressed to the both of them. Jade ripped the paper opened and took out a cloak made of a silvery material. She jokingly put in on, causing Christopher to gape at her in shock.

"What?" she asked frowning at her brother's reaction.

"Your body disappeared." said the boy fixing the place where her body should have been.

Jade glanced at herself. She was indeed 'missing' the parts of her body that were covered by the cloak.

"Read the note!" she told her brother eagerly.

The boy picked the card up and read:

"_Dear Christopher and Jade,_

_This is an invisibility cloak that was passed on to me by my father. It is a very precious family heirloom. I have decided that it was time I passed it on to you too._

_Make good use of it._

_Dad_."

"Cool!" whispered Jade grinning at her brother.

"You bet!" said Christopher returning her grin.

They played with the cloak for a little before leaving to breakfast. As soon as they had finished eating they ran outside. It had snowed overnight and the lawns were covered in white. They met Hargrid who was dragging a giant Christmas tree inside the castle. The greeted the man and left to play in the snow. Morning was spent having a snowball fight. It was an intense battle; snowballs were flying relentlessly across the grounds. At last, the collapsed from exhaustion and after a quick lunch they decided to make a snowman. It turned out to be quite an amazing snowman as Dumbledore became very excited upon hearing about it and insisted that he helped. The headmaster, being the greatest wizard in existence, magically carved the snowman so that it would as precise as a statue. After much deliberation from Christopher and Jade it was decided that the snowman would be a snowlady. Dumbledore waved his wand a few times and a woman of great beauty was sculpted in the snow. He then cast an everlasting charm on the statue and levitated in the Great Hall. Christopher and Jade followed the headmaster in the Hall and started helping decorate it for the evening's feast. Jade used her perfect levitation spell to help Professor Flitwick adjust the fairy lights on the Christmas Tree while Christopher helped Professor Sprout to water the tree.

When it was finally time for the feast, Dumbledore moved all the tables but one to the side. All the teachers and the few students that had stayed sat at the table and started eating the fabulous dishes that had appeared. The atmosphere was light and everybody was joking. Well, most people were. Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall were laughing loudly at one end of the table while Madam Pomfrey fussed over how little Snape was eating. Christopher and Jade were listening attentively to the stories Dumbledore was telling. All in all, it was a very enjoyable evening and when it was time for bed there were many sighs of disappointment. The twins went back to Gryffindor Tower and slept together as they had done the night before. Christopher fell asleep quickly. Jade however felt restless. She finally decided that since she couldn't sleep she might as well use her time wisely. She got up from bed, very carefully so as to not wake up her twin, and took the invisibility cloak. She wrapped the cloak around her and left the room. She crossed the common Room and passed by the Fat Lady.

A few minutes later, Jade had arrived in the library. She had remembered one place she hadn't look for mentions of Flamel: the restricted section. So that's where she went. Once she was hidden by the tall bookcases she dropped the cloak. The raven haired girl examined the rows of books carefully. She picked one who didn't have a title and opened it. A scream which was more piercing that the scream of a banshee escaped from the book. Her heart beating faster and her ears ringing, Jade snapped the book shut. The screaming stopped but Filch's voice could be heard from the library's entrance. The raven haired girl put the book back and grabbed the cloak, quickly covering herself with it. The Caretaker appeared, holding a lamp. Jade concentrated on not making any noise and slowly made her way to the door. Once she was out of the restricted section she started running. She stopped panting a few minutes later; she had gotten out of the library and was now standing in a corridor she had never been in. She realised she was near the charms classrooms. Jade started walking towards the classrooms so that she could then go back to Gryffindor tower when she spotted Filch and his cat. She looked around for a good hiding place and opened a nearby door. Thankfully the door was opened and she got in the room, silently closing the door behind her.

The room was empty a part from a mirror, which was standing in the middle of the room. Curious, Jade made her way towards the mirror, letting the cloak slip to the floor. She stood in front of the mirror and looked into it. At first, she saw nothing. She was about to turn and leave when to her astonishment figures stated appearing in the mirror. Her reflection appeared first and then her parents, Hermione, Ron and many people whom she sometimes didn't recognise. She looked over her shoulder but there was no one there. She looked back at the mirror and examined the scene. Her reflection was standing in the middle of the group. Christopher was by her side, smiling at her, well her reflection. Oh, she realized. Even though, Christopher was there, everybody was looking at her, at her and not at her brother. She stood there for a very long time watching the figures smiling at her reflection. At some point she seemed to remember where she was. Jade picked up the cloak and once again wrapped it around her.

She managed to get to the dormitory without encountering anyone which she was grateful for. She dropped the cloak at the foot of the bed and slipped under the covers. She snuggled against her brother trying to forget what she had seen in the mirror.

The next day, Jade had to fight her contradictory emotions. She felt guilty that she hadn't told her brother about the mirror but somehow she wanted to keep it secret. She thought it was because she didn't want him to see what she had seen the previous night. She was ashamed of it. She knew she had enjoyed people giving her attention even though her brother was there and she saw it as jealousy on her part. She hated being jealous of her brother, it wasn't his fault if Voldermort had chosen to kill him. Also, she hadn't been particularly neglected; her parents loved her she had friends…Well, sure Ron only hanged out with her because of Christopher but he was still her friend. And Hermione had been Jade's friend before she became friends with Christopher.

Still the nagging feeling didn't go away. That night Jade had to fight very hard not to go back to the room. She managed to restrain herself and finally fell into an agitated sleep. However the second night she couldn't resist the temptation and went back to the room. She entered the old classroom and dropped the cloak as she had done two nights before. The raven haired gil placed herself in front of the mirror and watched as the figures appeared. Once again she was in the middle of a crowd and everyone was looking at her rather than at Christopher.

"I see you have found the mirror of Erised." said a voice behind her.

Jade turned around and spotted Dumbledore standing in the doorway. The old man walked to her side.

"What is it, sir?" she asked.

"It is a mirror that shows you your deepest desires." replied the headmaster. "Many of whom have looked into it have wasted away their life and been driven mad by the mirror."

Jade nodded, showing she understood the warning. The man smiled at her.

"Tomorrow the mirror will be moved to a different location, I hope you will not look for it." he said before walking to the door.

"Sir, may I ask…" called Jade as the man made to leave.

The headmaster turned to look at her with a curious twinkle in his eyes.

"Erm, what do you see in the mirror?" she asked.

The raven haired girl was thankful it was dark in the room because she could have sworn she was blushing. But the question was necessary in a way, she wanted the reassurance that what she had seen wasn't bad.

"I see myself with a pair of woollen socks." replied the Headmaster. "Every Christmas I receive countless books that people seem to think I would like. I find myself regretting not receiving a nice pair of socks."

Jade smiled. She could tell the man was lying but his answer was good enough. That he was lying showed that he also saw something that he would rather not tell others. The raven haired girl watched as the old wizard left the room. She gave a quick glance to the mirror, and picking the cloak left as well. She slept peacefully that night, knowing that the mirror wouldn't haunt her anymore.


	6. Chapter 6

**Thank you to all my readers, and I hope you will enjoy this chapter.**

* * *

Jade and the rest of 'the golden quartet' as Malfoy had dubbed them, were lounging in the Gryffindor Common Room. Hermione and Ron had been back for a week. Jade was still plagued by the memory of the Mirror of Erise but she didn't show it and none of her friends' suspected anything. She had considered telling them but after considering their reactions she had decided it was preferable not to. She didn't think any of them would understand, since she herself didn't understand it fully. Hermione would probably blame her for having such desires and Christopher would probably go back to being awkward around her which she didn't want. Ron…well, Ron was Ron so he might not bother about the whole thing and Jade knew that the red haired boy was sometimes jealous of Christopher's fame and her own Quidditch skills.

Jade grabbed her box of chocolate frogs she had received from Hermione at Christmas and retrieved one of the blue hexagonal boxes from it. Before she could open it, the sound of someone crashing in made her look at the doorway. Neville had just fallen on the floor in the doorway, and was now having some difficulties getting back up. Jade hurried over to give him a hand and pulled him up with the help of Dean. She glanced at the boy's legs; they seemed strangely attached to each other.

"What happened?" asked the raven haired girl.

"Mal-Malfoy!" gasped the boy obviously terrified of the blond Slytherin. "He cast a leg-locker spell on me."

"That prat!" Jade took out her wand. "_Finite Incantatem._"

The boy's legs sprang apart and Neville looked at her gratefully.

"Thanks. I'm so pathetic, I couldn't get the spell of my legs and I had to hop all the way back." he said lowering his head.

"You're not pathetic!" said Jade forcefully. "If you were Malfoy wouldn't amount too much seeing as you are worth twelve of him!"

The boy looked at her with a slightly reassured look.

"Thank you." he murmured.

"No problem." replied Jade, with a pat on the boy's shoulder she went back to her abandoned chocolate frog.

She opened the package. The released frog hopped out but was deftly caught by the raven haired girl. Munching her chocolate Jade took the card out of the box.

"I've got Dumbledore." she said to no one in particular.

She was indeed holding a card with the old wizard's picture accompanied by the name 'Albus Dumbledore' in golden letters and a few sentences concerning the headmaster. Jade read the commentary absent-mindedly and gasped. A huge grin broke out on her face.

"I found it! Listen guys!" she said pulling the other three closer. "Considered by many the greatest wizard of modern times, Dumbledore is particularly famous for his defeat of the Dark Wizard Grindelwald in 1945, for the discovery of the twelve uses of dragons blood…"

"We already know all of that." interrupted Ron. "I don't see what…"

"If you'd just let me finish!" hissed Jade before continuing her reading. "…and his work on alchemy with his partner, Nicolas Flamel!"

The raven haired girl looked up at her friends eagerly.

"That's where I had seen the name before!" she exclaimed.

Hermione seemed to realize something as well.

"Of course!" she said, slapping her forehead. "Wait here."

The bushy haired girl dashed out of the room leaving her three friends looking puzzled. Jade watched the other girl's rushed departure and shook her head. She glanced back at the card.

"I didn't know Dumbledore liked ten-pin bowling." she remarked conversationally. "And chamber music." she added with a frown.

"How the mighty do fall!" said Ron with a wise nod of his head.

Jade smiled and pushed him playfully. At that moment, a frantic Wood arrived in the Common Room.

"This is a catastrophe!" he announced to the room. "Snape is refereeing the next Quidditch match." he said with the tone of someone announcing the end of the world.

Jade gaped at him.

"WHAT?"

Was heaven against her? Why did the teacher she hated most in the school have to referee a Quidditch game.

"Snape is refereeing the next Quidditch match." supplied Dean thinking she hadn't heard the first time.

Jade looked unbelievingly at Wood who had collapsed on a chair. Angelina Johnson and Katie Bell, the Chasers, were attempting to comfort him. It didn't help much; especially as they looked a bit pale themselves. Jade sank deep into depression. She didn't even notice when Hermione came back holding a heavy book which she dropped unceremoniously on the table. Her thoughts were swirling in her mind. Snape. Quidditch match. Snape. Head of Slytherin. Snape…

"…on the Philosopher's Stone." Hermione's voice dragged her out of her daze.

"What?" she asked finally paying attention.

Hermione gave her a stern look.

"I was saying that Nicolas Flamel is famous for being the only maker of the Philosopher's Stone." explained the bushy haired girl.

"What's that?" asked Jade straightening herself in her chair.

"It is stone that is capable of changing metal in gold and that is used to create the Elixir of Life, a potion that makes you immortal as long as you drink it regularly." said the girl glancing at the book for confirmation.

Silence fell at the table.

"But why would Snape want the Philosopher's Stone?" finally asked Christopher, voicing everyone's thoughts.

"I don't know." admitted Hermione.

"But we can safely assume that it's what Fluffy's guarding." stated Jade. "Maybe we should talk to Hagrid again. He might agree to tell us more."

"You're right." said Christopher. "Shall we go now?" he asked.

"No it's too late for that now." said Hermione glancing at the darkening sky visible out of the window. "We'll go tomorrow."

However, the teachers seemed to have decided they wouldn't let them have any free time because they gave them so much homework that they didn't have a single free moment all through the week. The days passed by and soon the Gryffindor vs Hufflepuff match arrived.

"This sucks. I bet he's going to give us as many penalties as he can." mumbled Jade as she fiddled with her sausage.

Ever since she had gotten up that morning, she had been complaining about Snape. She had the same dark expression on her face as all the other Gryffindor team members.

"You'll just have to make not to give him any reason to give penalties then." said Hermione.

"Or, you just catch the Snitch before he has time to give any." said Ron patting her back.

She gave him a dark look and finished her sausage.

"Well, I'll be going first." she said rising from the Gryffindor table.

Jade joined her team in the changing rooms.

"Alright men." said Wood beginning his prep talk.

"And women." added Angelina.

"And women." agreed Wood before continuing. "This year we have the best team ever, we must win this match, Snape or no Snape."

There were cheers from the other members of the team and they got in position.

"Jade, try and get the Snitch as fast as possible." said Wood his gazed fixed on her.

The raven haired girl smiled and nodded.

As soon as the match started, Jade flew around the pitch, looking frantically for the Snitch. The golden ball was nowhere in sight though, and she was frustrated to no end. The Grffindors were given one penalty for a reason Jade didn't bother listening to. She was pretty sure it wasn't valid anyway. She was flying near the Ravenclaw stands when she saw the Snitch on the other side of the pitch. The Hufflepuff Seeker was nearer it than she was but he didn't seem to have noticed. Nonchalantly, Jade got closer looking everywhere as if she was still looking for the Snitch. As soon as she was close enough she sped towards the Snitch taking advantage of the other Seeker's surprise. She managed to catch up with the Snitch and caught it just as the Hufflepuff Seeker levelled with her.

He flew back to the ground under the cheers of the crowd. As they walked into the changing rooms, it was clear that the whole team was relieved the match was over. Snape hadn't made it easy for them and they had only been twenty points ahead of the Hufflepuff team when Jade had caught the Snitch.

* * *

The following weekend, the quartet finally had time to go down to Hagrid's. The man looked happy to see them and invited them inside. They sat and waited until he had finished making the tea.

"Hagrid, Fluffy is guarding the Philosopher's Stone, isn't he?" blurted out Jade as soon as the half-giant had sat down.

The man blinked and looked unsure for a few seconds.

"Yeah, yeah, that's what it is. Jus' don't tell anyone." he said sternly.

"Of course not." agreed Jade immediately while the others nodded their heads. "Hagrid, before you said that Snape had helped protect the stone. Does it mean that there are others?"

"Yeah, da other teachers helped as well." mumbled Hagrid.

"Which teachers?" insisted Hermione.

"Professor Sprout, Professor Flitwick, Professor McGonagall and Professor Quirell." enumerated the Gamekeeper.

The four children were silent, reflecting on what they had just learned.

"Hagrid, why does your house feel like a sauna?" asked Jade conversationally as she tried to fan herself with her head.

"Ah, er, well, that's er…" Hagrid shifted in his seat uncomfortably.

"Hagrid?" repeated Jade her eyes narrowing.

The man didn't reply. The raven haired girl proceeded to examine the room, looking for something out of the ordinary. She finally noticed the origin of the heat. A cauldron was placed on the fire. In it the water was already boiling.

"What is that Hagrid?" she asked sternly as she spotted the dark red egg floating in the water.

"It's, er, a dragon egg." said Hagrid finally. "I was talkin' with some bloke in da Hog's Head de other night, and I was tellin' him 'bout how I had always wanted a dragon. An' that bloke told me that he had one with 'im but 'e wanted ta make sure I could take care of it. So I told 'im 'bout Fluffy. He looked pretty interested in Fluffy and asked me how I calmed 'im down. So I told him 'bout how I used to play music for Fluffy, how it always made 'im fall asleep."

The egg rattled in the cauldron and Hagrid hurried over to check on it. He didn't notice the frown and dark looks passing between the quartet.

"Hagrid, what was the man like?" asked Hermione.

"Dunno, he was hidden by 'is cloak." replied the man distractedly as he put kitchen gloves on and picked the egg.

"But you said it was a bloke, how did you know it wasn't a woman?" insisted Jade.

"His voice was too low to a woman's." shrugged Hagrid.

The man carefully brought the egg to the table and placed it on the wooden surface. All eyes were fixed on the egg as it shook violently. A tap was heard, and then another. At the third tap, a crack appeared in the shell. A few cracks later and a tiny red dragon appeared. The little animal got out of its shell and walked on the table. It appeared to cough a few times and a flame came out of its nostrils, putting fire to Hagrid's beard. The half-giant chuckled and tapped his beard with the kitchen glove to put it out.

"He's beautiful. I'll call him Norbert." said Hagrid fondly.

"Hagrid you can't keep a dragon…"started Jade.

She was interrupted by Christopher.

"Malfoy's watching!" he exclaimed pointing at the window.

The blond head quickly disappeared as all gazes turned towards the glass, but he wasn't quick enough and all of them saw the Slytherin boy.

"He must have seen the dragon." said Hermione weakly. "What should we do?"

"One of my brothers works with dragons." said Ron. "I could ask him."

"Yeah that would be good." agreed Jade. "Can you owl him now we need to get Norbert out of Hogwarts as fast as possible."

The red haired boy nodded and sprinted back to the castle. The other three set to convince a reluctant Hagrid that it was the best course of action. As the man kept refusing to let the tiny dragon go, Jade finally lost her temper.

"HAGRID! IF IT GETS OUT THAT YOU HAVE A DRAGON YOU COULD BE KICKED OUT. THINK OF THE CONSEQUENCES FOR ONCE!" she yelled angrily, her green eyes flashing with anger.

The man seemed frightened by her sudden outburst and nodded meekly. Satisfied with his response, Jade dragged her twin and Hermione out telling Hagrid they were off to plan the smuggling of Norbert. Charlie's reply came in the evening. Luckily Charlie was around with a colleague of his. He would fly to the astronomy tower the following night at midnight and take Norbert from there. Ron sent back a letter telling his brother that they would be there.

The following night, the four children walked out of the castle under the invisibility cloak. They went to Hagrid's hut and took Norbert with them. Ron was in charge of carrying the basket containing the dragon.

"Ouch!" suddenly said the red haired boy dropping the basket. "He bit me!"

Hermione examine the boy's finger. It was red and rapidly swelling.

"You should go to Madam Pomfrey." she advised.

"I'll go with him." said Christopher. "You two take Norbert."

The two boys left towards the Hospital wing and the girls picked up Norbert and his basket and walked up to the Astronomy tower. Once there they dropped the cloak on the floor and kept a look out for the two men. They soon came and with only a few words exchanged Charlie and his colleague took the dragon. The two girls watched them disappear in the night before making their way back down.

"Students out of bed, I see." said a voice as they had reached the bottom of the stairs.

Jade swore under her breath, they had forgotten the cloak like bloody idiots and now they had been caught by Filch!

"Follow me." said the man with an evil smile.

The two girls glanced at each other and followed the man to Professor McGonagall's office. They were surprised to see that they weren't the only students there. Malfoy, and more surprisingly, Neville were standing in front of McGonagall's desk. The woman was in her night robes and looked very displeased upon seeing more students out after hours.

"I am very disappointed in the four of you." she told them sternly. "Now Mr Malfoy here was telling me you had a dragon, is it true?" she asked turning to the Gryffindors.

Jade raised an eyebrow. That prat! Couldn't he have kept his mouth shut?

"I can't imagine how we would have gotten our hands on a dragon." said the raven haired girl as if it was the most ridiculous thing she had ever heard.

"You have, I saw it." spat Malfoy angrily. "You…"

"That is quite enough, Mr Malfoy!" said Professor McGonagall cutting him off. "You will all be serving detention. Mr Malfoy you may leave."

The blond gave a final glare to the Gryffindors and left the office.

"I am most displeased with you three." said the woman. "I will take fifty points from the three of you. Now go to bed."

The three Gryffindors left the office meekly.

"Fifty points! We're going to get killed by the others!" whined Neville.

"Don't be so pessimistic, Neville. It might just be the key to our success!" reprimanded Jade sarcastically.

The boy stared at her with a downcast expression and didn't reply. They walked in silence for a while.

"So, what were you doing?" Hermione finally asked Neville.

"I had forgotten the password and the Fat Lady wouldn't let me in. I fell asleep in front of the portrait and Filch found me." muttered the boy blushing furiously.

"Tough luck." said Jade sympathetically.

They arrived in front of the Fat Lady and gave her the password 'Fortuna Major'. Neville went up to the boys' dormitory while the girls went up to their own. Before she fell asleep, Jade reminded herself to go and fetch the cloak first thing the next morning.


	7. Chapter 7

**Dear readers, with the end of the week-end we are nearing the end of Jade's adventures; at least, her adventures in first year. I realize I have been spoiling you by posting chapters after chapters this week-end but this will end as I will be going back to class starting tomorrow. I hope you will like this chapter and I promise I will try to continue posting regularly.**

* * *

Jade was indulging in the fascinating activity of doing nothing. She loved doing nothing, especially when she was around someone working. It had the tendency to unnerve the worker deeply which highly amused the raven haired girl. So she was staring out the window with a completely blank stare, while Hermione was frantically writing her History of Magic essay. At some point, Hermione snapped. Jade, who had predicted and awaited this moment, hid a smile.

"Jade! Isn't there something else you should be doing?" asked the girl positively furious.

The raven haired girl had to hold herself back from laughing.

"And what, exactly, could be more interesting than staring nostalgically at the distant fog?" asked Jade with the air of a misunderstood poet.

"Oh let me think…Doing your homework maybe?" asked Hermione sarcastically.

Jade looked at her as if she had said the stupidest thing possible.

"Hermione, why should I need to work, when I am already the epitome of perfection?" she asked calmly.

She heard Seamus snicker behind her but ignored the boy, gazing relentlessly at her friend. Jade had to fight extremely hard not to laugh as she looked at the girl's dishevelled appearance and angry stare. This was just too good! Not to mention, Hermione would be even more disgusted when she saw the perfect work Jade would give to Professor Binns the following day. Truth be told, she had spent hours the night before doing the blasted essay so that she could have her bit of fun.

"Jade! McGonagall asked me to pass this to you."

The raven haired girl welcomed the distraction, namely Alicia Spinnet a Chaser for Gryffindor, with a dazzling smile.

"Thank you." she said taking the note the older girl was holding.

Alicia rolled her eyes at Jade and left to join her friends by the fire. The raven haired girl unfolded the paper and read the message.

"Our detention is tonight." she told the girl facing her. "We're supposed to meet Filch in the Entrance Hall at eleven."

Hermione who had gone back to her essay, nodded quickly not averting her eyes from her paper. Jade rolled her eyes at her friend and left to tell Neville about the detention. She found the boy and quickly passed the message to him. Then as she still had a little time before dinner she decided to go and take a walk. She stepped out of the Common Room and walked down the stairs. She didn't really have a particular destination in mind so she simply wandered the corridors randomly. As she rounded a second floor corridor she heard two voices arguing in low voices. She flattened herself against the wall and got as close as she dared to.

"…don't know why you wanted to meet here of all places, Severus"

Jade tensed. This was Quirell's voice. And Severus? That would be Severus Snape.

"Oh, I thought we'd keep this private, students aren't supposed to know about the Philosopher's Stone after all." said Snape's voice. "Have you found out a way to get past that beast of Hagrid's yet?"

"but, Severus, I-" Quirell sounded more frightened than usual which would not normally have thought possible but now that she was faced with the facts…

"You don't want me as your enemy, Quirrell." Snape's voice was threatening.

"I don't know what you-"

"You know perfectly well what I mean." snapped the Potions Master before lowering his voice so that Jade could only hear a few words. "- your little bit of hocus pocus. I'm waiting"

"But I don't-" said Quirell with a quivering voice.

"Very well. We'll have another little chat soon, when you've had time to think things over and decided where your loyalties lie." said Snape in a tone that promised hell.

Deciding that she had heard enough, Jade quietly fled the scene of the crime…fine the scene of the blackmail. She decided it was probably wiser to go back to the Common Room rather hang around and possibly get caught by either of the two. She climbed back up to Gryffindor Tower and stopped in front of the Fat Lady.

"Pig snout." said the raven haired girl.

The portrait swung to the side and the girl entered the common room. She hurried over to Hermione and dragged towards the boy's dormitory where she knew Ron and Christopher were. The raven haired girl told them about the conversation she had just heard.

"Snape was threatening Quirell?" asked Hermione for the third time.

"Yes, Hermione. And yes, I am sure I heard correctly." snapped Jade. "Anyway this confirms our suspicions on Snape."

"Should we tell Dumbledore?" asked Christopher.

"We don't have proof, Chris! He probably wouldn't believe us." said Jade shaking her head.

"Jade's right. We need proof." agreed Hermione.

"How about we find proof later?" suggested Ron. "I'm starving."

"Not to mention we have exams starting tomorrow." added Hermione.

"Yes, because exams are so much more important than the Philosopher's Stone." grumbled Jade under her breath but she followed her friends down to the Great Hall anyway.

After dinner, Hermione and Jade stayed and studied until it was time for their detention. It wasn't that Jade **wanted **to study but seeing as Hermione was the only person left and she just happened to be studying, there wasn't much left to do. And they did have exams the day after so she might as well study a little. At precisely quarter to eleven, Hermione snapped her book and the two girls walked down to the Entrance Hall. They joined Neville and Malfoy there and Filch arrived moments later.

"You'll be serving detention with Hagrid tonight." said the man with a delighted expression. "In the forest." he added gleefully, which was actually rather creepy on him.

The forest. At night. Well, that was just dandy, wasn't it? Jade had always dreamed of having detention at night in the bloody forest! No really, what in Merlin's name were they thinking? Did they realize that safety in numbers didn't apply for excursions in the forest? They probably didn't, or else they would have made them write lines or scrub cauldrons.

The Caretaker led them down the stony path, towards Hagrid's hut. As they neared the wooden cabin, the half-giant came out with his dog. After exchanging greetings, Filch left the group and marched back to the castle.

"Right." said Hagrid. "There's been somethin' killin' unicorns in the forest, so we'll be lookin' for that tonight."

He glanced at the four children.

"Ya all know how to make sparks with ya wand?" the students nodded. "Right. So we'll make two teams. Jade ya can go with Malfoy and Hermione an' Neville. One group will go with me and the other can take Fangs."

"Alright." said Malfoy quickly. "But we're taking Fangs."

"Suit yarself, but he's a bloody coward." said Hagrid motioning to the dog.

Malfoy paled but didn't say anything.

"If ya find anything send red sparks." said Hagrid.

The man gave Malfoy a lamp and ordered Fangs to follow them. Jade walked into the forest with Malfoy by her side and the dog slightly ahead.

"Wait until my father hears of this." complained Malfoy.

"Your father is not here right now, Malfoy." snapped Jade before he could say more. "Too bad but you will have to do something for yourself, for once."

The boy didn't reply and retreated in an angry silence. Jade didn't really mind, she wasn't going to insist on having a conversation with someone she hated.

The two children walked further into the forest. From time to time they would hear a wolf howling or some other kind of wild animal. Malfoy would dart glances all around and move a little closer to Jade. The girl wasn't so obvious about her fear, she simply clenched her teeth and continued walking, her hand never far from her wand. They walked cautiously between the trees. They passed a tree that seemed to have been struck by thunder and entered in a clearing.

The two children froze. In the middle of the clearing was a shadow bent on a unicorn's body. The unicorn's blood, a thick silver liquid was forming a puddle in the grass. Slowly, as if it had been put in slow motion, the shadow turned towards them. The unicorns blood was dripping where Jade figured was the…the thing's lips. She couldn't be sure as its face was covered by a hood. Malfoy let out a piercing scream and ran away with Fangs on his heels. Jade vaguely thought she should do the same, but her legs refused to move. She stood there frozen on the spot and shaking slightly as the shadow slowly moved towards her. She barely realized the centaur had entered the clearing. In her confused daze she saw a man with the lower body of a horse chase the shadow away.

"Are you alright?" asked the centaur coming back towards her and extending his hand.

Jade looked at him confused. She finally realized that she had fallen to her knees. Embarrassed, she grabbed the hand that was offered to her and pulled herself to her feet.

"Thank you." she said.

And she was thankful, she could have shed tears of gratitude there and then, but because she was proud she pushed the tears back and smiled instead. It was a stiff smile, but it did the trick anyway.

"Come I will take you back to Hagrid." said the centaur. "My name is Firenze."

"I'm Jade Potter." said Jade quickly. "It's nice to meet you."

The centaur motioned her forward and she took a few steps not understanding what it was thet he wanted.

"Climb on my back." he said simply.

"Are you sure?" asked Jade frowning.

She didn't know a lot about centaurs but somehow she had never thought that they would allow a human to ride them. They seemed too proud to allow it.

"Yes." replied Firenze.

Carefully, Jade advanced and lifted herself onto the centaurs back. It helped that the centaur grabbed her back with one of his arms to help her. She still felt a bit shaky from her encounter.

"What was that?" she whispered as the centaur started walking.

"Do you know what unicorn blood does?" asked Firenze.

"Yes." said Jade remembering the assignment she had done at the beginning of the year. "It keeps you alive but gives you a cursed existence."

"Exactly. Do you know who would want to stay alive badly enough to risk being cursed for life?" asked the centaur again.

Jade thought. Who would want to live that badly? Somehow she couldn't imagine Snape being on the brink of death and never desperate enough to resort to drinking unicorn blood. Not Snape. The who? Someone who was on the brink of death. She knew someone like that, and even one who would drink unicorn blood even if that meant being cursed for life. But no it couldn't be…

"Voldermort is dead…" she whispered more to herself than the centaur.

"Ah! He would certainly one who would drink the blood of the unicorn or try to acquire the Philosopher's Stone." remarked the centaur.

"How do you know about the…"

Jade's question was cut by a loud cry.

"Firenze! What are you doing?"

Another centaur was galloping towards them looking furious. He was followed by yet another centaur who looked slightly alarmed.

" You have a human on your back! Have you no shame? Are you a common mule?" said the first centaur.

"Do you realise who this is? This is the Potter boy's twin sister. The quicker she leaves this forest, the better." replied Firenze.

"What have you been telling her? Remember, Firenze, we are sworn not to set ourselves against the heavens. Have we not read what is to come in the movements of the planets? Centaurs are concerned with what has been foretold! It is not our business to run around like donkeys after stray humans in our forest!" countered the centaur.

"Bane, I am sure Firenze is trying to do what is best…" started the second centaur.

" Leave it Ronan." intervened Firenze, he then turned to Bane. "Do you not see that unicorn? Do you not understand why it was killed? Or have the planets not let you in on that secret? I set myself against what is lurking in this forest, Bane, yes, with humans alongside me if I must."

On these last words, Firenze turned his back on the two centaurs and trotted away. Jade didn't dare say a word. She understood that the centaur had gotten himself into trouble for letting her mount him.

"This is where I leave you. You are safe now. Good luck, Jade Potter. The planets have been read wrongly before now, even by centaurs. I hope this is one of those times." said Firenze as they reached the edge of the forest.

The raven haired girl slipped to the ground and turn to look at the centaur.

"Thank you, Firenze. I will never forget that you saved my life tonight." she said at last.

The centaur bowed its head and trotted back into the forest.

"Jade!"

Jade turned to see Hermione running towards her. The girl was followed by Hagrid, Neville, Malfoy and Fangs.

"I'm all right Hermione." said Jade smiling. "Really."

"Malfoy told ma what 'appened. I'll go and take a look at dat unicorn. All f ya go to bed." said Hagrid.

The four students hurried back to Hogwarts glad that it was over. Neville, Hermione and Jade walked back to Gryffindor Tower.

That night, Jade dreamed of a green light. It flashed brightly in front of her eyes and she could hear the cries of a child. She woke up screaming, her hands scratching her face around her eyes. Hermione hurried to her side and stopped her from ripping her eyes out. Jade finally fell back to sleep, sweaty and trembling, with one name repeating in her mind over and over. Voldermort.


	8. Chapter 8

**We are quickly approaching the end of the first book. I hope that you will enjoy this chapter and I am already working hard on the next. Also the first part of this chapter will be a major break down from Jade so if you are faint of heart please skip it! I don't think anything too traumatizing though, but it is a bit depressing.**

* * *

The exams started and with them Jade found a way to escape the nightmares that plagued her. She buried herself in her studies, barely stopping to eat. Every night, she dreamt of the green light, the baby crying. Oh, she knew; she knew what it was. She knew it was her memories of the day Voldermort had tried to kill her brother. But they were memories she was not supposed to have. At the time she had been too small to understand what was happening, so how could she have remembered?

She didn't want to remember, she wanted to forget. And that was what she attempted to do by working. Work enabled her to forget about the nightmares, and to shut that nagging little voice that wouldn't shut up. Voldermort. Voldermort. Voldermort. It was driving her mad.

Every night she woke up yelling madly, her body covered in sweat and her fingers clawing at her eyes. She also knew why she was trying to rip her eyes out. She had understood the first morning. She had been standing in the bathroom and she had seen her reflection in a mirror. It was then that she had realized for the first time in her life that her eyes were not Lily's eyes. Her mother's eyes were so much darker than hers, how had she never seen it? Her eyes were not Lily's, they were the color of an _Avada Kedavra_, the killing curse. And so the green flashing light, followed her like a curse everywhere she went. A curse set in her eyes.

She had not told anyone about her nightmares, or about her eyes. Hermione knew she had nightmares, of course, and she had told Ron and Christopher about it. But Jade had refused to tell them anything about the nightmares. It was a secret she wouldn't tell. She couldn't tell. She hated her eyes, they felt like a stain on her. What would they think if they knew? Nothing probably. They would say it was stupid, that she had lovely eyes. They would say it was nothing like the killing curse. But they had never **seen** that green light. Jade had, and she knew that her eyes were the exact same shade as the curse and how she hated it.

She did perfectly on her exams. She knew she had. She would have even without working that much. She knew she was bright, in a different way from Hermione though. The bushy haired girl had an amazing ability to store what she read in books. Jade understood. It was a different kind of intelligence but effective all the same. The only exam she had done badly on was Potions. Not that it came as a surprise. Potions were the one thing she could never understand.

As soon as the exams had been over, Jade had lost her reason to study. She had lost her only anchor to sanity. As she left the Charms exam, ten minutes before the others, she wandered the corridors aimlessly. Her eyes were glazed and if anybody had seen her in that moment they would have thought her insane. And maybe she was. But nobody did see her and she walked through corridors she didn't recognize to a place she didn't know of. Her steps took her to a bathroom. The irony of it! She was trying to escape the curse and here she was in the one place where she was faced with it no matter where she looked.

The thought made her laugh, it was horrible laughter. Bitter and broken, the laugh of a madman. It rang through the empty bathroom, filling everything around her. She laughed and laughed, a laughter without joy, a laughter as broken as her mind. She laughed until her throat was soar. She stopped and gazed at her reflection. She was pale; there were dark shadows under her eyes. Her eyes; they were still as green, they still held the curse. She banged her knuckles on the mirror in front of her. She didn't see the blood flowing out of her torn skin. All she could see was her eyes. The green flashing light that was death itself. And she held death in her very eyes. She glared at her own eyes, seeing her own anger reflected in the emerald orbs. How she looked ugly in that instant! But she didn't see it; she could only see her eyes.

She didn't know how it happened. She didn't know when it started but heavy sobs were shaking her body. She slid to the floor. The cursed eyes were swimming with heavy tears. The room which had rung with her broken laughter just moments ago, now echoed with her sobs. Her sobs were like her laugh; bitter and broken. As her tears fell down her cheeks, the nightmares, the agony, the pain, the fear, it all flowed out.

She felt a hand on her back. She didn't know whose it was; she didn't care. It was warm and it was all that mattered. She heard a voice that she didn't recognise soothing her. She didn't understand the words, she couldn't see the person's face through her tears, but she knew there was another human being there and it was all that mattered. She was cursed but there were people around that were still willing to look at her and offer comfort. They were still willing to offer her the warmth she suddenly lacked; and it was all that mattered.

* * *

She woke up in the Hospital Wing. She recognized it immediately by the amount of white surrounding her. Jade sat up in the bed and looked around her. The room was empty a part from her. It was quiet and Jade found it incredibly relaxing. Her thoughts were much clearer now, than they had been in the past week.

Jade leaned back in her pillow and started thinking. She thought about the shadow she had seen the night of the detention. She thought about how she had seen Snape threaten Quirell. She thought about smuggling Norbert…Norbert? How had Hagrid gotten Norbert in the first place? Oh, right, the dragon egg had been given to him in the Hog's Head by a man wearing a hood. Jade froze. Hagrid had told the man how to get passed Fluffy! How had she not seen it before? It couldn't be a coincidence that Hagrid met a man willing to give him a dragon egg when Hagrid had always wanted one. The man had done that to get information out of Hagrid!

"I see you are awake."

Madam Pomfrey had arrived and was standing next to the bed.

"Yes, er, hello." said Jade hesitantly.

"Well it was a surprise when that nice young man came and brought you here." said the nurse starting to examine Jade.

"Who was it?" asked the raven haired girl.

"I'm sorry dear, but he asked me not to tell." replied the woman with an apologetic glance. "Well, it looks like you're all right now. I still have Dreamless Sleep Potion if you ever need any."

"Thank you." said Jade swinging her legs over the side of the bed.

She got up carefully and grabbed her clothes from a nearby chair. Madam Pomfrey left her, closing the curtains with a flick of her wand as she went. Jade stripped from the white pajamas she was wearing and put her robes back on. Once she was changed she hurried over to Gryffindor Tower. She found her little group in the Common Room.

"Jade! Where did you go?" asked Hermione when she saw her friend.

"Hospital Wing." muttered the raven haired girl evasively. "But listen, I realized something. It couldn't be a coincidence that Hagrid met a man with a dragon egg. And Hagrid told the man how to get passed Fluffy. That must mean that whoever it is, is going to try to get to the Stone."

She hadn't said it was Voldermort trying to find the Stone. She vaguely felt that she didn't have enough proof even if she was pretty sure she was right. She just couldn't think of anyone else.

"We've got to tell Dumbledore." said Christopher.

This time nobody argued. The four children hurried to the headmaster's office. They nearly collided with Professor McGonagall who was coming of Dumbledore's office.

"What are you all here for?" asked the woman surprised.

"We need to see Professor Dumbledore." said Jade panting.

"The headmaster is in London Miss Potter." horrified expressions appeared on the students' faces, which Professor McGonagall noticed. "Surely it couldn't be that important?"

"It's about the Philosopher's Stone. We think it's going to be stolen." said Jade hurriedly.

The Transfiguration Professor looked stunned for a few minutes.

"How you learned about the Stone is beyond me, but I can assure you that it is quite safe." she said shaking her head. "Now I believe you all have classes."

Dismissed, the four students dragged themselves to their class.

"What should we do now?" asked Christopher as they approached the History of Magic classroom.

"We should go to the Stone ourselves, tonight." replied Jade firmly. "We can't let **him** have the Stone."

Her friends were a bit taken aback by her determination but they didn't enquire further as they thought she was talking about Snape. During the day, the quartet took every chance to plot their adventure. At lunch, the whispered excitedly to each other. Jade was a lot more serious than the others. Of course, her friends understood that they couldn't let the Stone be stolen, but none of them knew who they were really going up against. Only Jade knew.

* * *

Night came and the four Gryffindors gathered in the Common Room. Jade had taken the flute that Hagrid had given her for Christmas and Christopher had the invisibility cloak.

"Are we ready?" asked Jade, she received nods of affirmation. "Let's go."

"I won't let you!" cried Neville who appeared from an armchair.

"Neville." sighed Jade in frustration.

"I won't let you lose any more points. You-you'll have to pass through me first!" said the boy stuttering slightly.

Jade sighed. Of all times the boys could have chosen to be brave, it was now.

"Neville, we really don't have time for this." said Christopher trying to coerce the other boy into moving aside.

"You're right, we really don't have time for this." said Jade taking out her wand. "Soo forgive me for this will you? _Petrificus Totalus_!"

The full body-bind hit the boy squarely in the chest and he fell, frozen, to the floor. Jade ignored the shocked expressions of her friends and led them out of the Common Room. They squeezed under the cloak and made their way, as fast as they possibly could, to the third floor. They were lucky not to meet any staff member and got to the room where Fluffy was. Hermione opened with _Alohomora_ as she had done the previous time. Jade placed the flute to her lips and Christopher opened the door. As soon as it saw them, the three headed dog started to growl. Jade started blowing in the flute, playing a random tune. It seemed to work as the three heads yawned. The cerberus lied on the floor and fell asleep. Ron, Hermione and Christopher marched towards the trapdoor. The dog had kept one of his massive paws on it and the three of them had to push the furry paw out of the way. It took them a lot of effort, and all the while Jade had to keep playing.

At last the paw was pushed to the side and it became possible to open the trapdoor. Jade walked forward as well, still playing. Her three friends exchanged uncertain glances. Jade finally had enough and pushed Ron in the hole, she then looked threateningly at the other two who quickly followed the red haired. Finally, it was Jade's turn, she put the flute in her pocket and jumped in the hole before the dog had time to wake up.

She landed on a squashy surface. The 'floor' started moving under her and a tentacle wrapped itself around her body.

"What the hell, is this?" she groaned.

Ron was screaming and Hermione was trying her best to get him to relax.

"Devil's Snare, apparently." muttered Christopher not far from her.

Her twin sounded uneasy though he wasn't as bad as Ron. Jade was starting to tense herself as more and more tentacles wrapped themselves around her body. The raven haired girl tried her best to think. Devil's Snare was a plant that lived in humid and dark places, it didn't like the sun…Didn't like the sun, that was it!

"_Lumos_." she murmured and a flash of bright light appeared at the tip of her wand.

Christopher, Ron and Jade were released by the tentacles and fell on a hard floor. Hermione was already there waiting for them.

"You know if you had just relaxed, it would have taken you down." she told them.

"Well, it was hard to relax with those things wrapping themselves around us." said Christopher meekly.

"That must have been Professor Sprout's protection." said Jade.

The raven haired girl pointed her wand in front of her. A simple room appeared before her.

"There's a door over there." she said pointing at the wooden rectangle on the other side of the room.

The quartet walked to the door and they entered the next room. It was a room much like the one they had just left, except that one was filled with flying keys. On the opposite wall was a door. They walked up to it only to realize it was closed.

"Well, I suppose that means we have to catch the right key." said Jade glancing upwards at the cloud of keys.

"Yeah, but how?" asked Ron.

"Like this." replied the raven haired girl, pointing to the brooms on the side of the door.

She grabbed a broom and mounted it. She flew towards the flock of keys that had started darting all over the place when she had grabbed the broom, and starting looking around.

"Can you describe the lock for me?" she asked to her friends.

"Er, it's old and it looks like it's made of silver." said Ron's voice from below.

She glanced at the keys around her. She ruled out all the golden keys as well as the one that looked new. She flew around the room twice before she set eyes on a key that fit the description. It was an old fashioned silver key with bright blue wings. Also, it looked like one of its wings was broken. Jade launched forward and made to grab the key. It escaped and she had to fly after it. The key turned abruptly and Jade couldn't turn on time. She swore and flew back to the flock of keys. She spotted the silver a key and rounded on it. She flew in circles around it. The circles became smaller and smaller until she was close enough. She launched herself at the key and captured it. Noticing that the other keys had started darting after her, Jade flew towards the ground and passed the key to Ron before rising again, the keys rushing after her.

"Open the door!" she yelled over her shoulder.

Out of the corner of her eye she saw Ron open the door. She waited until Hermione and Christopher had left the room and darted towards the door. Ron banged the door shut as soon as she had gone through and they heard the sound of hundreds of keys banging on the wooden panel.

They now stood in front of a giant chess board. Giant stone pieces were already positioned.

"I think we have to play." said Ron getting closer to the board.

As Ron was by far the best chess player, they let him give the instructions.

"Jade you'll play as a bishop, Hermione you'll be a rook, Christopher you can play as the King." said the red haired firmly. "I'll be a knight."

The three students placed themselves accordingly and Ron climbed on the back of a stone horse. Then, the game began. Jade had never appreciated how violent a game of Wizard's Chess was until she was played as one of the pieces. When a piece was taken, it was mercilessly destroyed by the opposite piece. When the first piece was destroyed, the four students watched the stone statue crumble to bits with a horrified apprehension. Ron continued giving his instructions making sure that none of them got too close to danger. At last, there was only a few pieces left on the board.

"Yes, that's the only way." murmured Ron thoutfully before raising his voice. "Listen, I'm going to move forward. The Queen will take me. Jade you take that chance to checkmate the King."

There were cries from the others but the red haired boy refused to listen to them and advanced. Jade watched with utmost horror as the white Queen glided towards her friends and raised her sceptre.


	9. Chapter 9

**Here is the last chapter of The Philosopher's Stone, I hope it won't disappoint you. You will probably notice that I've cut some parts compared to the book. That is actually because I do not have a copy of the first book so I was missing some major parts on some scenes.**

* * *

The horse Ron was riding was smashed and the boy was flung to the side of the room where he collapsed. Hermione made a move to run towards him but was stopped by Jade.

"If you go to him, we'll lose the game." reminded the raven haired girl.

Hermione nodded her face very pale. Jade took a deep breath and moved forward. She looked up at the white King.

"Checkmate!" she claimed.

Slowly the King's hands opened and the stone sceptre he was holding fell to the floor with a loud crash. All the other pieces moved away from the door recognizing they were winners.

With a last glance to Ron's body, the three entered the next room. The room smelled horrible and they soon found the reason. A mountain troll was lying in the middle, seemingly in no state to pick a fight. The three students hurried to the door. They had passed McGonagall's test and Quirrell's had already been taken care of, which meant only Snape's test was left. They entered and found themselves facing a table full of Potions. They walked towards it and jumped in surprise as fires appeared both in front of the door opposite them and in front of the one they had just come from. Once she had recovered from the shock, Jade moved towards the table. A parchment was placed there. She picked it up and read it.

"_Danger lies before you, while safety lies behind,_

_Two of us will help you, whichever you would find,_

_One among us seven will let you move ahead,_

_Another will transport the drinker back instead,_

_Two among our number hold only nettle-wine,_

_Three of us are killers, waiting hidden in line_

_Choose, unless you wish to stay here forevermore_

_To help you in your choice, we give you these clues four:_

_First, however slyly the poison tries to hide_

_You will always find some on nettle wine's left side_

_Second, different are those who stand at either end_

_But if you would move onward, neither is your friend;_

_Third as you see clearly, all are different size_

_Neither dwarf nor giant hold death in their insides;_

_Fourth, the second left and the second on the right_

_Are twins once you taste them, though different at first sight._" she looked at her friends. "It's a riddle."

"This is brilliant! It's logic. A lot of wizards don't have an ounce of logic." said Hermione brightly.

Jade passed the parchment to the bushy haired girl. Hermione read the riddle and walked over to the table examining the bottles before looking back at the parchment. She marched back and forth a few time before turning back to them.

"All right, I've got it!" she announced after a few minutes. "The third potion from the left will let you go forward through the black flames and the one of the far right takes backwards through the purple flames."

"What should we do then?" asked Christopher. "One of us will have to stay here, no matter what we do."

"Hermione, can you go back through the purple flames and take care of Ron?" asked Jade ignoring her brother.

"Yes, of course. But what will you two do?"

"We'll share the potion and go forward." said the raven haired girl.

"That's dangerous!" exclaimed Hermione.

"We're going to be in danger sooner or later anyway." said Jade with a shrug. "And I'll go first so that if it's not safe, Chris will know not to go."

She then picked the bottle Hermione had indicated and drank half of it before handing the bottle to Christopher. The boy was shaking slightly as he took it. Once Christopher had drunk the remaining potion, Hermione seemed to resign herself and drank the potion to go backwards. The three of them looked at each other before separating.

"You two be careful, okay?" said Hermione before hurrying through the purple fire without waiting for an answer.

Jade glanced at her brother and taking a deep breath, walked through the black flames. She felt a slight tingle as she passed but nothing else. She checked herself for burns but seeing none, she decided it was safe enough.

"It's all right, Chris!" she called.

A few seconds later her brother was standing by her side. They exchanged a nervous look and opened the door.

* * *

"Quirrell?" exclaimed Christopher in disbelief.

He and Jade had entered a room similar to the others, except in this one there was only a mirror which Jade recognised instantly as the Mirror of Erise. And in front of the mirror stood Professor Quirrell. The man turned to glance at them.

"Yes, that would be me." said the pale man without a shadow of his usual stutter.

"B-but I thought…Professor Snape…?" choked Christopher turning to look at his sister who was failing to react.

"Yes, Severus does seem the type, doesn't he? So useful to have him swooping around like an overgrown bat. Next to him, who would suspect p-p-poor, st-stuttering P-Professor Quirrell?" said Professor Quirrell with a little laugh. "Now, don't disturb me, I'm trying to figure out how to get the stone. I can see myself with it, but why can't I get it?!" he said his frustration clear.

"You work for Voldermort, don't you?" asked Jade with an expressionless face.

Christopher looked at her in astonishment. Her twin seemed to find it hard to believe that she had been keeping secrets from him.

"Clever, Miss Potter. Very clever." murmured Quirrell turning to look at her. "I met him when I travelled around the world, you see. A foolish young man I was then, full of ridiculous ideas about good and evil. My master showed me how wrong I was. There is no good and evil... there is only power, and those too weak to understand it... Since then, I serve him faithfully, although I have let him down many times. When I failed to steal the stone from Gringotts, he was most displeased. He punished me...decided he would have to keep a closer watch on me..."

"That was you?" exclaimed Jade.

"Yes, it was. You hadn't realized?" asked Quirrell.

To hers and Christopher's horror, a whispering voice was heard from Quirrells surrounding.

"_Let me see them, let me talk to them_." it said.

"But master…" said Quirrell.

"_Do it_." hissed the voice.

The Defence Against The Dark Arts teacher turned his back on the twins and started undoing his turban. The two children watched him frozen. As the fabric fell to the floor a face was revealed. It was stuck to the back of Quirrell's head.

"Voldermort." whispered Jade.

"_Come forward_." said the face.

Jade did. She placed herself a little distance away from Quirrell. Close enough that she could see herself in the mirror. She saw her reflection smile at her. Then, the reflection raised her hand. In it was a brilliant red stone. Still smiling the reflection placed the stone in her pocket and Jade felt a weight in her own pocket. She did her best not to let any emotion appear on her face and she flicked her gaze back at the face.

"_Christopher Potter!"_ said the face staring at Christopher who had advanced behind her. "_We meet again!"_

"Voldermort!" choked Christopher as if he had just realized it.

"_Yes_." whispered Voldermort. "_See what I have become! See what I must do to survive! Live of another as a parasite. Unicorn blood sustained me but it couldn't give me a body of my own. But there is something that will, something that conveniently lies in your sister's pocket_."

Jade tensed. How did he know? Christopher looked at her astonished. Jade grabbed his hand and made to run for the door.

"_Stop them_!" hissed Voldermort.

Quirrell snapped his finger and walls of fire appeared blocking them the door.

"_Fool! Why do you face death when you could join me and live forever!"_ said the face.

"Sorry, but living forever is bound to get boring so I'll refuse." said Jade though her voice quivered a little.

"_Kill them_!" hissed the enraged voice.

Quirrell turned around and flew towards them. Jade and Christopher dived to the side. However Quirrell was quick and he managed to pin Jade to the floor. His hand was clutching her throat and slowly choking her. Christopher gave a cry and launched at the man. As Christopher's hands came into contact with Quirrell's skin, the Defence professor yelled loudly. Jade raised herself in a sitting position. Quirrell's hand had turned to ashes when her twin had touched him.

"Chris, keep touching him!" she yelled at her brother.

The boy didn't take time to think and did as his sister had told him. He put his hands on Quirrell's cheeks and kept them there as the man yelled in pain. It seemed to Jade that the screaming lasted for hours but then it finally stopped. Dark spots appeared in front of her eyes and she fell unconscious.

* * *

Jade had fallen into a dark pit. Screams started to fill her surroundings. At first, she thought it was Quirrell screaming. But she soon realized it was a child's scream. Bright green light filled her vision and her screams joined the child's. The green light flashed around her. She knew that green. It was the same color as her eyes. She knew that light. It was the one she had seen in her nightmares. She screamed and screamed, until the sound didn't come out of her throat anymore. Two names filled her thoughts. _Avada Kedavra_. Voldermort.

Jade woke up suddenly. She was lying in a bed covered in white sheets. Her body was sweaty and tears were falling from her eyes. She wiped them with the sleeve of her white pajama shirt and sat up. The Hospital Wing was silent, and for good reason too: it was the middle of the night if she was to trust the black night sky she could see out of the window.

The raven haired girl looked around her. On the bedside table was a box of chocolate accompanied by various letters. She picked the first one up and opened it.

"_Dear Jade,_

_You are probably asking yourself a lot of questions right now so I'm writing as many answers as I can. First, we managed to defeat Quirrell. Dumbledore said that the love that had saved me before was too much to bear for Quirrell and that's why he turned to ashes when I touched him. Also, the Stone was destroyed. Dumbledore said it was too dangerous to keep it. It's a bit sad for Nicolas and Perenelle Flamel, but well…_

_Ron and Hermione are both okay. They didn't stay that long in the Hospital Wing. Not as long as you anyway. They came to visit you and left the sweets and a letter. _

_Madam Pomfrey told me you had been in the Hospital Wing just a day before and told me you had had nightmares. I hope you'll talk to me about them. _

_A part from that Mum and Dad will be arriving soon. They will take us back home for summer as soon as you've woken up. _

_I hope you get well soon, I miss you._

_Christopher_

_PS: I wrote this a few days ago but since you still haven't woken up I thought I had to write down the latest news. It was the End of the Year Feast last night. We won the House Cup, thanks to Dumbledore awarding us points for what we did. He awarded you sixty points for 'wit and bravery in the face of danger'. It's too bad you missed the feast; there was your favourite lemon pie. But don't worry Mum said she would make you as much lemon pie as you liked during summer break!_"

Jade smiled at her brother's letter. It seemed a lot had happened while she was sleeping. She would need to ask him about all of it later.

The raven haired girl picked the other letters and read them quickly. They were mostly get-well letters from Ron, Hermione, the Quidditch team…Wood had written that they had lost the last game which made Jade feel a bit guilty. Dumbledore had written a little card as well wishing her a prompt recovery. She sighed heavily as she put down the last letter. Was she better?

Jade got to her feet and walked unsteadily towards the bathroom. She looked at her reflection in the mirror. Hatred rose in her. No, she didn't feel better. She still wanted to rip her eyes out whenever she saw the green shade of the _Avada Kedavra_ in them. Would she ever get better? She doubted it.

She thought of the warmth of the unknown hand on her back and smiled. It didn't matter. She didn't need to get better. She would just have to stay away from mirrors for a while and she would survive the nightmares. She would be fine, as long as she had that warmth.

* * *

**I will be writing a sequel to this story (of course) which will go by the highly original name of Jade Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. I will do my best to make that second book better and hopefully longer than the first. A loads of thanks to my reviewer, Ally of Darkness, and to my beta Arisophalmah.**


End file.
